IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0    Ifri-  illM 


I.I 


1.25 


'^       140 


1.4 


2.2 


2.0 


1.8 


1.6 


Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MAIN  STREET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  14580 

(716)  873-4503 


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CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  Microreproductions 


Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


1980 


Technical  and  Bibdographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
originai  copy  avaiiabie  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  Images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


D 


D 
D 


D 


D 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


I     I   Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagAe 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurie  et/ou  pelllcul6e 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gAographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  inic  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  binck), 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bieue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
ReliA  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serr^e  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intArieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  .nay 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  aJoutAes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  itait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  AtA  filmtes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  supplAmentaires; 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  At4  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  methods  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiqute  ci-dessous. 


□   Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

□   Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagies 

I      I    Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 


D 
D 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film*  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqui  ci-dessous. 


Tl 
to 


Pages  restauries  et/ou  peiliculies 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxet 
Pages  d6color6es,  tachet6es  ou  piqu6es 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  ditachies 

Showthroughy 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  in^gale  de  {'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  materiel  supplAmentaire 


I      I  Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 

I     I  Pages  detached/ 

I      I  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

|~n  Includes  supplementary  material/ 


Ti 

P< 
o1 
fil 


Oi 
be 
th 
sii 
ot 
fir 
si< 
or 


Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mition  disponibie 

Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata.  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  M  filmAes  A  nouveau  de  fagon  A 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


Th 
sh 
Til 
wi 

Ml 
dif 
en 
be 
rig 
rec 
mc 


10X 

14X 

18X 

27V 

26X 

aox 

v^ 

12X 

16X 

aox 

MX 

28X 

32X 

Th«  copy  filmed  h«r«  has  b««n  r«produc«d  thanks 
to  tha  ganarosity  of: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 


L'axamplaira  film4  fut  raproduit  grica  A  la 
ginArosit*  da: 

Library  Division 

Provincial  Archives  of  British  Columbia 


Tha  Imagas  appearing  hara  ara  tha  bast  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Las  imagas  suivantas  ont  At*  raproduites  avac  la 
plus  grand  soin,  compta  tenu  de  la  condition  at 
da  la  nattetA  de  Texemplaira  film*,  et  en 
conformity  avac  las  conditions  du  contrat  da 
filmaga. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  ^^>  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Les  exemplairas  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimAe  sont  filmAs  en  commcnqant 
par  la  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
darniAre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  la  second 
plat,  salon  la  cas.  Tous  les  autras  exemplairas 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  darniire  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
darniAre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  la  symbola  ^^-  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  Atre 
film6s  A  des  taux  da  reduction  difftrents. 
Lorsqua  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  Atra 
raproduit  en  un  seul  clichA,  il  est  film*  A  partir 
de  Tangle  supArieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite, 
et  de  liaut  en  bas,  en  prenant  la  nombre 
d'images  nAcessaire.  Las  diagrammas  suivants 
illustrent  la  m6thode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

m^ntf^tiivm    ^yw""9"V  'J  . 


;..,,  "y^y"p;^m^'  '  '^f  V  '  -7^^ 


fj'.'j^ii^^'y''" '  '\  ^""'  '""^ ""  '>'^/,  |E 


da— J— Mttir~  I      7itff'^j;i^,jigaiia- 


•^JAPANESE     WKEOKS. 


OUTLINE  MAP  OF  THE  NORTH  PAOIEIO  OCEAN, 

Showing  the  Distribution  of  Diiabled  Japanese  Junlcs  by  Winds  and  Currents;  also  Direction  of  the  Kuro  Shiwo,  or  Japan 

as  oorreotod  by  the  Observations  and  investigationa  of  Professor  Qeorge  Davidson,  U.  8.  C.  8. 


ORAWN      QY     CWAHI_EQ     WOLCOTT      BROOKS. 


OCEAN, 

I  Kuro  Shiwo,  or  Japanese  Warm  Stream, 
fidaon,  U.  8.  C.  8. 


■i       ! 


EARLY  MIGRATIONS. 


ORIGIN 


OF  THB 


Chinese  Rage, 


PHILOHOI'HV  OF  THEIII  KABLY  DKVELOPMKNT,  WITH  AN  INQUIBT  INTO 


THE   EVIDENCES  OF 


THEIR  AMEKlCAiN  ORIGIN; 


Suggesting  the  Great  Antiquity  of  Races  on  the 
American  Continent. 


BT 

CHAllLEtJ  WOLCOTT  BKOOKS, 
Member  of  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences. 


Read  before  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences,  May  3d,  1876. 


SAN    FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA: 
Re-printed  from  the  Proceedingo  of  the  Academy, 

1876. 


6-77  5 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Con-^'iess,  in  the  year  1876,  by 

CHARLEH  WOLCOTT  BROOKS, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librariuu  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


oi^LiGiisr 


OF   TUB 


CHINESE    RACE, 


PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE1I|^  EXCLUSIVE  DEVELOPMENT:—  ' 

Jnqiiiry  into  llie  Kvideno*^  of  their  Axnerioan  Origini  sug- 

geetinj;  a  groat  AntiQuity  of  tlie  Hviinan  Races 

on  the  American  Continent. 

BY  CHAULES  WOLCOTT  DUOOKS. 

In  seurching  fov  tlit>  oiigiti  of  nny  race,  the  careful  student  is  led  to  the 
barrier  of  pro-historic  nges,  where,  amid  the  scanty  remnants  of  remote  an- 
tiquity, he  Hoiks  the  niissiii}:;  links  of  a  chain  whose  farther  end  has  passed 
from  the  vision  c>f  goncinl  observers. 

All  ethnolofjists  must  recognize  the  importance  of  reviewing  the  early  stages 
of  religious  belief  current  among  any  people,  and  laws  governing  its  develop- 
ment, in  any  systematic  study  of  their  earliest  origin. 

Every  act  of  luiin  and  every  chniige  in  nature  is  self-recording,  and  although 
it  may  require  the  wisdom  of  a  God  to  read  the  record,  it  yet  exists,  capable 
of  being  deciplu  red,  and  contributing  to  history. 

With  the  advance  of  scientific  Iniowledge,  the  human  line  of  division  be- 
tween so-called  historic  and  pre-historic  ages  is  gradually  receding.  Science 
and  historical  criticism  are  opening  many  fields  long  hid  in  myth  and'con- 
jeeture.  Much  now  classed  as  ancient  mytholngy  is  but  the  lingering  rem- 
nants of  very  ancient  history,  preserved  and  distorted  by  tradition.  Most 
ancient  nations  in  their  written  histories,  have  aimed  as  far  as  possible  to 
ignore  all  antecedent  civilizations,  claiming  for  their  own  deified  ancestry  the 
origin  of  all  men.  IJarbaric  conquerors,  filled  with  the  spirit  of  battle,  were 
early  deified  as  gods,  their  descendants  accepted  as  demi-godn  were  founders 
of  reijrning  dynasties,  and  naturally  snnght  protection  by  surrounding  their 
ori>;in  with  the  supernatural.  Transformations  are  freq'ient  in  the  mythology 
of  all  nations,  for  religion,  in  whatever  stage  of  its  development,  ever  remains 
a  grand,  progressive,  moral  science.  Many  ancient  forms  of  pagan  worship 
glided  silently  into  even  Christian  rites,  when  martyrs  canonized  as  saints, 
noiselessly  replaced  the  divinities  of  former  systems. 

As  most  early  gods  were  ancient  heroes  deified,  their  worship  was  a  nat- 


g.^^.; 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


uml  miinifestution  of  a  low  order  of  pntriotisiu,  w  hieh  selfishly  detested  all 
nations  but  one  chosen  people.  £fti'h  nation  seems  to  have  created  its  own 
god  in  the  image  of  its  highest  ideal.  Early  ideas  of  God  have  been  success- 
ively adjusted  to  the  iutellectual  cai)acity  of  each  progressive  age,  whose  high- 
est ideal  has  ever  been  the  natural  limit  to  its  powers  of  mental  or  spiritual 
conception,  possible  under  existinji  conditions  of  divelopmeiit. 

Modern  science  and  its  civilizing  arts  have  refined  our  personal  conceptions 
and  raised  our  ideal,  by  extending  our  limits  of  comprehension.  Our  own 
conceptions  of  the  Great  Architect,  the  Intelligent  Mind  of  the  Universe,  as 
ihey  exist  to-day,  are  as  much  nobler  than  those  of  the  ancients,  aH»the  mag- 
nificent enginery  of  this  uineteeenlh  century  excels  the  rude  implements  of 
early  ages. 

Notwithstanding  this  tendency  to  ignore  antecedent  civilizatious,  the  most 
ancient  peoples  of  antiquity,  at  the  period  of  their  viry  earliest  records,  show 
plainly  that  civilized  life  existed  before  their  time. 

In  speaking  of  civilization  at  early  periods,  it  is  evident  we  cannot  mean 
that  of  the  printing  press,  telegraph  and  steam,  as  known  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  for  no  record  of  any  such  exists,  but  reference  is  made  to  a  high 
state  of  early  culture  among  cities  of  solid  structure,  with  foreign  commerce 
and  mechanic  arts,  in  contradistinction  to  barbaric,  nomadic,  or  pastoral 
conditions. 

Great  maritime  empires  existed  in  very  remote  periods;  and  both  Alantic 
and  Pacific  Oceans  were  crossed,  and  races  and  civilizution  widely  extended 
in  ages  still  called  pie-historic.  ^Vhelher  we  study  the  historical  records  of 
Arabian,  Phcjeniciau,  Chaldenn,  Assyrian,  Egyptian,  Iv-'sia.),  Central  Asian, 
Malay,  Chinese,  Japanese,  Central  American  or  Peririan  nations,  we  are 
amazed  at  the  antiquity  to  which  they  lead  us.  Many  o.iental  records  now 
in  process  of  translation,  throw  much  light  on  the  early  movements  of  races. 
Asia  in  the  far  East  was  long  considered  the  land  of  ciicLantnient— a  name 
given  by  sui)erKtition  to  early  science.  Astronomy  was  cnllivatcd  in  Persia 
B.  0.  320J);  in  India,  B.  C.  3101;  in  China,  B.  C.  2952;  and  in  Fgypt,  B.  C. 
2800.     Truly,  wise  men  eamo  from  far  east  of  Greece  and  Home. 

In  Egypt,  India,  China,  A«neuea  and  South  Pacific  Islands,  evidences  of  a 
primitive  civilization  are  found,  which,  in  some  instanc(  s,  must  have  run  its 
course  long  anterior  to  the  age  of  Homer.  Unmistakable  traces  of  a  primeval 
and  ante-historic  culture  of  the  human  race  in  America  exist  to  mark  the 
lapse  of  many  ages  of  civilized  existence.  A  knowledge  of  thtv  western  shores 
of  the  American  continent  has  long  existence  in  both  China  and  Japan.  That 
a  restricted  communication  has  existed  by  sea  across  the  Pacific  does  not 
admit  of  question.  When  treating  of  the  origin  of  the  Japanese  races  several 
historical  instances  of  their  early  trans-Pacific  voyages  will  be  described  and 
discussed. 

In  comparatively  modern  times,  enthusiaslic  specialists,  versed  in  Hebrew 
traditions,  have  sought  to  locate  the  primeval  source  of  all  knowledge  and 
culture  upon  the  high  table  lands  of  Asia,  where  thoy  pictured  the  radiant 
morning  of  civilization  as  immediately  succeeding  the  completion  of  a  ere- 


I 


I 


ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES 


nted  world,  perfected  in  all  its  parts,  including  mnn,  the  most  complex  being 
iind  climiix  of  creation. 

In  a  search  after  the  origin  of  any  race,  we  are  first  led  to  define  a  belief 
in  tlio  orifjin  of  man.  I  accept  the  hypothesis  of  universal  evolution  by  a 
slow  process  of  cosmic  development,  from  matter  which  includes  within  itself 
the  elements  of  all  atmoHpheric,  mineral,  ve<,'etabk'  and  animal  existence,  but 
latent  until  its  energies  are  quickened  by  that  progressive  life-principle  which 
ceaselessly  radiates  from  the  Great  Intelligent  Mind  of  the  Universe,  and  is 
everywhere  essential  to  awaken  development. 

This  hypothesis,  clearly  within  the  scope  of  human  thought,  is  able  to 
stand  the  test  of  human  reason,  and  now  seems  tangibly  demonstrated,  espe- 
cially in  the  connected  chain  of  fossils  recently  discovered  and  arranged  by 
Professor  Marsh,  which  visibly  illustrate,  by  an  incontrovertible  record  of 
natural  history,  the  evolution  of  the  eqiws  or  horse  family,  anchitherium, 
hipparion,  etc. 

All  material  things  appear  connected  together  by  gradational  forms,  from 
the  superior  mental  culture  of  man,  the  highest  animal,  to  th'^  protozean  or 
lowest  speck  of  gelatinous  matter  in  which  life  manifests  itself  to  human  per- 
ception, onward  through  untold  ages  of  mineral  existence  and  cosmic  condi- 
tions, ever  in  exact  keeping  with  its  pace  of  progress.  All  things  thut  develop 
have  life.  Earth  has  labored  to  lit  itself  for  the  abode  of  man,  and  its  labors 
are  progress:  g  successfully.  Man  came  by  regular  stages  of  gradation  from 
the  monad,  and  his  mental  development  keeps  pace  with  and  is  restrained  by 
physical  surroundings.  Immutable  natural  laws,  universally  and  eternally  in 
force,  do  not  admit  of  any  sudden,  special  creation  of  man,  nor  do  they  indi- 
cate that  all  forms  of  animal  life  could  have  been  created  at  the  same  time. 
What  has  once  occurred  will,  under  similar  conditions,  occur  elsewhere. 

Man  is  the  result  of  all  interior  types,  whose  capabilities  are  within  him- 
self, making  him  a  compendium  of  all  created  things.  Fossil  remains, 
found  in  diflFerent  formations,  are  plainly  revealing  the  stages  of  progressive 
transformation,  each  successive  one  having  all  the  attributes  of  its  predeces- 
sor, with  more  added.  Crustaceous  animals  are  succeeded  by  fishes,  running 
into  the  saurian,  thence  into  birds,  next  marsupials,  followed  by  the  mam- 
malial,  up  to  man  Animal  development  has  unfolded,  and  is  continually 
improving  as  the  physical  conditions  of  the  globe  are  improved  and  refined, 
and  higher  conditions  rendered  possible. 

Mind  is  an  attribute  of  matter,  each  being  instrumental  and  necessary  to 
develop  the  other.  Goethe  says:  "Mind  cannot  exist  without  matter,  nor 
active  matter  without  mind." 

The  man  of  cultivated  mind  has  reached  more  than  a  mere  physical  being, 
having  developed  within  himself  a  portion  of  that  superior  intelligence,  the 
germ  of  which  he  inherits  from  the  Mind  of  the  Universe.  The  human 
mind  is  unmistakably  progressive,  and  progression  is  an  eternal  principle. 
Hence,  mind,  the  highest  refinement  of  matter  in  man,  is  eternal.  Our 
greatest  revelation  from  the  Infinite  is  in  His  works,  where  nature  matures  a 
supply  for  every  want  she  creates.    The  power  to  conceive  of  immortality 


Pkoc.  Cai,.  AcAi).  Sci.,  Vol.  VI.— 7. 


U  U1.I1._.,1UII. 


6 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


therefore  implieH  ability  to  attain  it.     This  glorioua  truth  is  iustiiii) 
and  recognized  by  every  branch  of  the  human  race. 

The  origin  of  man  has  been  gradually,  yet  hastily,  traced  aH  the  i  ..of 
a  constantly  progressive  life-principle,  awakening  development  in  mutter,  huo- 
cesHively  evolving  from  cosmic  conditions,  minerals,  plants,  and  all  the  lower 
forms  of  aniwal  life,  up  to  its  climax,  intelligent  humanity.  In  man  is  to  be 
found  the  highest  physical  ultimate  of  matter,  endowed  with  that  further  re- 
finement, a  moral  and  progressive  spirit,  capable  of  ultimately  unfolding  his 
full  physical  and  mental  capacities  In  human  evolution,  we  can  but  outline 
the  origin  of  existing  physical  forms,  which  periodically  change  with  con- 
stantly modifying  conditions.  The  immortal  quickening  principle  which  we 
inherit,  can  only  be  traced  to  the  Infinite. 

The  animating  principle  of  all  existences,  appears  like  a  purer  and  more 
highly  refined  essence  or  form  of  electric  force;  equally  manifest  in  mental 
and  physical  development,  aud  exactly  adjusted  in  all  its  different  degrees  to 
successive  stages  of  progressive  refinement.  Natural  law  is  universal.  In 
the  material  process  of  electrotyping,  man  follows  Nature's  own  method  of 
building  up  metallic  forms.  The  progressive  life-principle  of  the  human 
mind,  in  common  with  endless  varieties  of  electric  phenomena,  manifests 
universal  consistency  in  the  positive  and  negative  phases  of  a  subtle  activity. 
Some  correlation  with  a  Central  Intelligence  seems  reasonably  indicated, 
whence  these  mutually  radiate  as  developing  powers;  alike  in  kind,  varying 
only  in  degree,  of  force,  purity  and  refinement. 

It  appears  probable  that  the  ancestors  of  the  earlier  types  of  mankind,  were 
evoived,  by  gradual  development,  near  the  oldest  parts  of  continents,  along 
their  central  summits,  upon  such  portions  as  first  acquired  a  soil  after  emerg- 
ing from  a  hot  primeval  sea.  Primitive  man,  at  first  a  speechless  animal, 
may  have  appeared  as  a  distinct  variety  of  the  animal  kingdom,  in  the  case 
of  a  single  pair,  from  which  all  human  races  have  multiplied,  and  differ- 
entiated according  to  the  surrounding  conditions  of  their  local  abode.  If  so, 
the  physical  conditions  of  certain  localities  have  been  far  more  favorable  to 
the  advancement  of  certain  races  than  others,  and  early  human  history  must 
be  by  race  and  not  by  7iations,  as  communities  of  individuals  come  but  with 
the  first  steps  to  culture. 

Within  the  limits  of  races  best  known,  languages  and  families  of  languages 
are  found,  which  preclude  any  common  linguistic  origin.  It  therefore  fol- 
lows, that  if  man  constitutes  but  a  single  family  in  the  order  of  Primates, 
represented  by  a  single  genus,  the  formation  of  language  must  have  com- 
menced after  the  still  speechless  primordial  man  had  diverged  into  races,  and 
differentiation  had  set  in.  With  the  development  of  ideas  in  the  mind,  how- 
ever rude  at  first,  and  organs  capable  of  articulation  in  the  body,  language 
was  a  consequent  result,  under  the  operation  of  universal  law.  The  Great 
Intelligent  Principle  of  the  Universe  pervades  the  entire  world,  as  our  mind 
fills  our  whole  physical  frame.  The  manifestation  oftthis  principle  we  call 
Life,  which  all  things  possess  in  greater  or  less  degree. 

Development  is  ever  progressive,  although  mutability  appears  to  mark 
every  advance,  yet  no  breach  of  continuity  has  occurred.  Every  order  has 
proceeded  by  natural  process  from  another  antecedent.    The  superimposed 


4 


ACADEMY     OF    SCIENCES. 


,  I        -of 

llttlT,  BllO- 

tlic  lower 
tn  in  to  be 
iirther  re- 
}l(liug  his 
ut  outline 
with  con- 
which  we 

and  more 
iu  mental 
Sef^reea  to 
crsal.  In 
method  of 
Hi  human 
manifests 
le  activity, 
indicated, 
d,  varying 

ttind,  were 
ints,  along 
fter  emerg- 
ss  animal, 
n  the  case 
and  diflfer- 
de.  If  so, 
avorable  to 
story  must 
e  but  with 

languages 
srefore  fol- 
;  Primates, 

have  com- 
)  races,  and 
luind,  how- 

,  language 

The  Great 
IS  our  mind 
pie  we  call 

■a  to  mark 
y  order  has 
perimposed 


{ 


Htrata  which  oonHtituto  the  cruHt  of  the  earth,  form  n.  gauge  of  relative  time, 
for  which  human  ehrom)logy  Hcarcely  affords  a  unit  of  measure.  It  is  per- 
fectly certain  that  during  the  cretaceous  epoch,  a  comparatively  recent  period 
in  the  world's  history,  none  of  the  phyHical  features  ey'<ted,  which  mark  the 
the  present  surface  of  the  globe.  Continents  have  undergone  movements  of 
elevation  and  depression,  their  shore  linen  Hunk  under  the  ocean,  and  sea- 
beaches  have  been  transferred  far  into  the  interior  of  pre-existing  continents. 
All  dry  land  has  been  submerged,  excepting  recent  volcanic  products  and 
metamorphosed  rocks.  These  introductory  facts  are  necessary  to  ethnological 
research. 

A  cooling  sphere,  having  acquired  a  solid  crust  around  a  nucleus  of  fiery 
liquid,  in  parting  with  its  heat  by  radiation  into  space,  must  contract,  distort- 
ing its  outward  surface  by  pressure,  raising  mountain  ridges,  and  depressing 
corresponding  valleys,  where  the  first  seas  became  located.  Sun  and  moon, 
obedient  to  the  law  that  bodies  move  to  each  other  in  proportion  to  their 
masses,  and  inversely  as  the  squares  of  their  distances,  attracted  tidal  move- 
ments in  molten  fluids  under  the  crust,  in  hot  salt  seas,  and  the  thick  unre- 
fined atmosphere  above.  Fluids  as  well  as  other  mntter  were  more  groas 
during  their  primitive  states.  Rupture  and  re-formation  succeeded  one 
another,  until  the  primitive  igneous  period  of  angular  azoic  granite,  became 
sufficiently  hardened  to  withstand  the  ordinary  pressure  of  inward  forces, 
gradually  preparing  to  furnish  physical  conditions,  suitable  to  begin  the  evo- 
lution of  animal  life  in  its  most  elementary  forms,  corresponding  with  the 
imperfect  condition  of  existiug  elements. 

During  the  mighty  struggles  of  the  unrefined  elements,  internal  convulsions 
sent  the  hot  salt  sea  surging  over  a  large  portion  of  the  surface,  and  sediment- 
ary deposits  formed  new  stratitications.  Substances  impregnating  the  waters 
united  in  forming  cry-tals.  The  waters,  having  raged  from  point  to  point, 
were  obliged  to  seek  an  equilibrium,  and  retired  to  the  valleys,  forming  vari- 
ous oceans,  seas,  lakes,  and  rivers. 

In  the  early  carboniferous  period  which  succeeded,  the  extra  nitrogen  and 
carbon  were  rapidly  absorbed  from  the  air,  and  the  density  of  all  exterior 
elements  greatly  reduced.  A  period  was  thus  established,  where,  under  fa- 
vorable auspices,  and  in  liiuited  localities,  the  very  imperfect  initiatorial 
orders  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  appeared.  An  infinity  of  embryo  existences 
are  contained  within  the  crust  of  the  earth,  awjiiting  the  slow  process  cf 
development.  Life  generated  at  the  initial  period  was  of  the  very  lowest 
order,  unable  to  support  or  reproduce  itself  to  any  considerable  extent. 
From  this  threshold  of  progression,  conditions  became  sufliciently  advanced 
to  admit  of  the  systematic  reproduction  of  species;  the  age  of  spontaneous 
generation  having  performed  its  limited  duty  in  the  general  ripening  of  the 
globe,  may  have  ceased  and  passed  away  with  conditions  which  sustained  it, 
and  matter,  within  itself,  matured  the  power  to  reproduce  its  kind,  endowed 
with  a  progressive  principle,  destined  eventually  to  evolve  its  ultimates. 
This  hypothesis  explains  why  spontaneous  generation  may  have  had  its  day 
and  subsequently  ceased. 

Crinoides,  conchiferoi,  crui>tacea,  polypi,  and  polyparia  successively  appear 
as  elements  are  advanced  to  the  necessary  conditions  to  sustain  such  forms  of 


8 


rrOCEEDINGS    OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


life.  Tht'  HyHteiimtic  development  ol  Jloni  and  fditnu,  in  HUCceHsive  ngen, 
exlendrt  in  tin  orderly  chain  from  their  dim  and  diHtnnt  beginninp",  t  >  our  own 
time,  through  univcrHiil  changen  of  atmosphere,  climiile,  and  oHcillationH  of 
temperature.  A  continual  unbroken  chain  of  organismH  ban  extended  from 
pala'ozoic  foimatioUH  to  those  of  our  day,  governed  by  law  that  knoAS  no 
change.  Each  species  has  gradually  evolved  from  its  predecessor  in  an  ante- 
cedent ag(>,  by  a  gradual  modification  of  its  parts,  culminating  in  the  age 
it  characterizes,  and  fades  away  in  succeeding  ones. 

Change  la  everywhere  the  soul  of  nature.  The  race  which  first  ocquired 
the  human  form,  and  became  properly  entitled  to  be  called  Man,  probably 
ascended  from  one  original  type,  which  has  since  diversified,  and  may  in  this 
age  be  divided  into  five  distinct  ■aricties  (not  types),  generally  classified  as 
Caucasians — trhltc,  Mongolians — ycliotc,  Malayans — broicit,  Americans — reil, 
and  Negroes — hltck. 

As  white  and  black  are  apparent  opposites,  and  science  shows  the  white 
race  to  be  superiorly  developed,  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  primitive  man  was 
black;  subseque.at  nations,  brown;  their  branches,  red;  from  these  sprang 
the  yellow,  and  thence  the  white.  Under  local  changes  of  utmoRpherical 
and  physical  conditions,  of  climate,  food,  etc.,  the  original  black  became 
modified  to  a  permanent  'own.  In  like  manner  one  shade  and  color  after 
another  became  permanv  atly  established.  As  with  complexion,  so  also  with 
stature,  symmetry,  and  strength.  Proper  use  develops,  while  disuse  brings 
decay. 

Some  anatomists  have  claimed  that  color  may  be  produced  by  the  arrest  of 
ntero-gestation,  or  is  governed  by  its  relative  duration  in  races,  thus  "  causing 
the  ultimate  portions  of  the  blood  to  become  so  assimilated  with  the  cellular 
and  serous  tissues  of  the  foitus  as  to  render  the  body  variously  colored — 
black,  brown,  red,  or  copper  color."     Lusus  ndtiira'  have  illustrated  this  fact. 

The  present  of  any  race  depends  largely  upon  the  physical  conditions  of 
the  soil  they  inhabit.  When  these  remain  unaltered,  the  race  cannot  advance, 
unless  it  can  develop,  by  brain  power,  sufficient  ingenuity  to  overcome  the 
drawbacks  to  advancement;  such  as  draining  marshes,  heating  dwellings, 
importing  ice,  etc.,  thus  growing,  in  spite  of  natural  restraint,  faster  than  the 
Blow  process  of  natural  evolutionary  changes  would  permit. 

Modifications  in  different  types  of  vegetable  or  animal  life  neither  progi-ess 
equally  nor  evenly.  There  is  no  intrinsic  necessity  that  they  should  undergo 
modifications  at  all,  unless  conditions  change,  or  in  the  case  of  man,  who 
invents  ways  of  surmounting  natural  conditioni.  To  him  the  extreme  North 
becomes  habitable  by  the  use  of  warm  clothing,  artificial  heat  and  light  during 
long  winter  nights.  By  a  restless  spirit  pressing  him  forward  and  a  judicious 
control  of  elements,  he  is  enabled  to  obtain  artificial  conditions  far  in  advance 
of  the  physical  condition  of  his  habitation,  and  thus  pre-naturally  exalt  and 
develop  himself  and  his  race.  With  the  loss  of  thct.a  conditions  the  highly 
developed  man  would  perish  or  relapse  into  a  comparatively  barbaric  state,  to 
where  his  development  would  exactly  agree  with  his  actual  physical  surround- 
ings. 

Darwin  unmistakably  illustrates  the  tendency  of  all  forms  to  variations, 
which  when  once  produced,  join  in  equal  battle  to  survive  and  supplant  their 


ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 


9 


live  ngeH, 
1  our  own 
liitiouH  of 
,ded  from 
knoA'8  no 
n  nn  anto- 
1  the  ngf 

,  acquired 
,  probiibly 
my  in  this 
iHsitieil  as 
Biins — red, 

,  the  white 
3  iniin  wna 
iHe  sprang 
oBpherlcal 
•k  becauio 
color  after 
>  also  with 
use  brings 

le  arrest  of 
J  "causing 
he  collular 
■  colored — 
i  this  fact, 
nditions  of 
>t  advance, 
!rcoine  the 
dwellings, 
Br  than  the 

pr  progi'ess 
Id  undergo 
man,  who 
erne  North 
ight  during 
a  judicious 
in  advance 
f  exalt  and 
I  the  highly 
ric  state,  to 
1  surrotmd- 

variations, 
)plant  their 


I 


progenitors  and  all  otherH.  Thi'  tltlest  will  muiuliiin  itself  and  the  othera 
perish,  the  jxirent  and  derived  forms  b  .ing  equally  dependent  upon  their  indi- 
vidual adaptability  to  surrounding  cimditions.  Thus,  certain  loculities  still 
exist  in  the  condition  of  ages  long  past,  where  inferior  ruees  yet  flourish  and 
tlnd  themselves  better  ott',  more  competent  to  deal  with  ditHeulties  in  their 
way,  than  any  variation  derived  from  their  type.  While  conditions  continue 
unchanged  they  remain  unsupplanted  by  other  foriuH,  and  their  type  becomes 
very  pronounced.  Exact  reproductions  are  rare.  Amid  infinite  similitude 
there  is  infinite  diversity;  and  imperfection  is  a  vast  lict,  which  must  always 
be  taken  into  account  in  all  hypotheses.  "  Anin.al  beauty  arises  from  the 
perfect  balance  of  physical  parts  and  the'  li  thm  u.\d  perfection  of  their 
action."  It  is  probable  that  no  (erceptible  change  has  liken  place  in  the 
""  :  ese  race  for  many  years,  because  in  that  timi  tli  '  incomplete  changes  of 
physical  condition  in  their  ciiuntry  have  not  adn  ■  ted  of  it.  Wheat  found  in 
tombs  with  Egyptian  mummies,  when  brought  fro-.u  darkness  into  sunlight 
and  planted  in  congenial  soil,  grew  and  produced  wonderfully,  but  could 
never  have  developed  without  a  change  of  conditions.  Change  I  <  imperative 
to  proKress. 

A  complete  knowledge  of  embryology  furnishes  an  unerring  record  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  any  form  of  aniniid  life;  for  tho  embryo  of  higher 
types,  while  in  process  of  maturing,  pass  successively  through  a  recapitula- 
tion of  all  forms  by  which  their  species  ascended  by  evolution  to  their  present 
condition.  Since  conception,  each  human  being  has  passed  rapidly  through 
modifications,  the  counterpart  of  the  graduated  forms  through  which  his  race 
has  been  slowly  built  up,  and  his  present  condition  reached.  Thus,  we  have 
a  history  of  human  evolution  republished  in  every  case  of  reproduction. 

M^n,  as  traced  by  his  embryotic  development,  commenced,  when  in  dark- 
nes-<,  the  cohesion  of  two  or  more  gelatinous  molecules,  impelled  by  a  con- 
stantly-progressive life-principle,  united  to  fonn  a  microscopic  zoosperm, 
capable  of  preserving  its  new  condition  in  a  thick  and  heated  liquid.  The 
proportionate  duration  of  early  life  in  warm  water  is  revealed  by  the  first  nine 
months  of  his  existence,  during  which  many  successive  hut  correlated  forms 
are  assumed.  Dr.  Cohnstein,  of  Berlin,  (quoted  in  t'he  Lancet,  May, 
1875,)  "has  determined  by  means  of  the  thermometer  that  the  temperature 
proper  to  the  fadus  in  ukro  is  higher  than  that  of  the  mother."  The  hot  salt 
sea  in  which  early  life  developed,  is  here  typified.  The  period  of  atmos- 
pheric air  having  arrived  at  birth,  "^merging  into  light,  his  aquatic  life  ends, 
and  becomes  terrestrial  and  aerial.  New  elements  of  food  are  supplied,  and 
the  mode  of  nutrition  changed.  For  awhile  1  is  food  continues  liquid,  and 
he  sees,  hears,  and  notices  but  little.  By  degrees  he  arrives  at  a  conscious- 
ness of  the  solid  world,  first  rolling,  then  creeping,  seal-like  on  four 
limbs,  then  sits  upon  his  haunches,  and  finally  walks  erect,  at  first  trem- 
blingly, then  playfully,  but  firmly,  at  last.  This  reveals  how  nature  required 
successive  physical  conditions,  to  acquire  progressive  results.  Each  being 
owes  his  present  bodily  form,  to  ascent  through  a  parentage,  each  change 
cf  -vhich  has  passed  away,  after  accomplishing  its  intended  purpose,  a  cul- 
mmation  reached  by  degrees,  through  countless  generations  of  improvement. 

In  due  time,  children  acquire  teeth,  and  another  change  of  food  ensues, 


10 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE    CALIFORNIA 


and  hair  usually  darkens.  A  second  set  of  incisor  and  carnivorous  teeth 
soon  mark  another  stage  of  progress,  and  youth  succeeds  childhood,  bring- 
ing an  expanded  development  of  bodily  form,  passions,  and  intellectual 
power.  No  individual  can  reproduce  until  he  reaches  the  full  m  liurity  of  the 
type  to  which  he  at  present  belongs,  which  prevents  the  race  from  receding, 
by  reproducing  a  lower  type.  Leaves  grow  out  or  drop  ofif,  but  never  grow 
back.     Nature  never  retrogrades;  advance  or  perish  is  law  to  the  individual. 

Man  can  Imitate  any  animal  of  his  species,  but  no  animal  can  follow  man 
beyond  its  developed  powers.  Many  traits,  exemplified  in  lower  animals,  are 
successively  developed  in  children,  and  overcome  by  proper  control;  such  as 
gluttony,  cunning,  and  deceit — the  latter  a  lingering  trail  of  weakness,  gene- 
ral with  inferior  races.  They  repeat  the  antics  of  a  very  active  and  mis- 
chievous race;  their  first  attempts  at  drawing,  resemble  the  rmle  figures  made 
by  our  primeval  ancestry  and  present  wild  tribes;  furthermore,  like  "children 
of  the  forest,"  our  younger  children  have  not  reached  the  age  of  self- 
cleanliness. 

The  impulsive  ferocity  of  youth,  and  cooler  maturity  of  age,  are  but  char- 
acteiistic  types  of  human  transformation  in  the  evolutionary  procession. 
Our  lives  acquire  a  double  signiftcauce,  when  we  find  we  are  building  an 
inheritauce  for  every  one  of  our  desceudants,  while  our  race  continues. 

In  our  growth,  we  »'t'-evolve,  concisely,  the  story  of  our  race's  lineage,  as 
in  "the  house  that  Jack  6ui/i,"  each  succeeding  verse  comprehends  all  its 
predecessors.  Our  present  bodies  now  barely  float;  for,  as  man  acquired  his 
upright  stature,  his  frame  must  have  increased  in  weight  and  hardened  into 
greater  rigidity;  while  ihe  pelvis,  to  sustuiu  additional  weight  thus  put  upon 
it,  enlarged,  thickened  and  increased  his  gravity. 

The  head  of  the  human  species  seems  originally  to  have  been  large  in  pro- 
portion to  the  body,  exhibiting  a  promising  germ  thus  early  advanced,  a  fact 
to  which  the  race  may  owe  its  present  superiority;  and,  possibly,  this  early 
development  of  the  organ  capable  of  acquiring  knowledge,  may  account  for 
peculiar  sufferings,  visited  upon  woman,  more  particularly  among  the  most 
intellectually  developed. 

The  highest  type  of  man  has  been  artificially  advanced  beyond  the  condi- 
tion of  some  portions  of  the  physical  world.  Miasuiatic  swamps  are  yet 
insufficiently  '•eclaimed  by  time,  to  permit  a  white  man's  existence  where 
they  continue.  Their  present  condition  would  involve  his  speedy  illness  and 
dissolution.  Lower  organizations,  congenial  to  and  in  harmony  with  such 
conditions  of  physical  development,  lua.y  exist  and  flourish  there;  but  more 
refined  types  of  humanity,  require  the  most  perfected  physical  conditions,  for 
their  perfect  enjoyment  and  highest  attainments. 

Centripetal  liw  has  cons(>Uda(ed  the  Chinese  into  a  positive  and  exclusive 
people,  who  delight  in  ignoring  the  centrifugal  or  complimentary  force,  which 
induces  dispersions.  They  have  long  clung  to  unique  customs  and  dress, 
resisting  change  or  impiovemout.  lu  Hieir  stereotyped  form  of  lroz?n  civiliza- 
tion, difFeientiatiou  has  been  arrested,  and  a  peculiar  type  itensitied.  Un- 
alterable fixedness  in  forms  of  belief,  and  habits  concreted  by  centuries, 
furnishes  convincing  evidence  of  great  antiquity.  Tlii^  black  races  are 
ethnologically  far  less  developed,  and  having  no  fixed  belief  to  displace,  are 
more  readily  converted  to  any  religious  sect. 


ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


11 


roua  teeth 
)od,  bring- 
utelleotual 
irity  of  the 
1  recediug, 
lever  grow 
individual, 
follow  man 
niiuals,  are 
•ol;  such  us 
neas,  gene- 
e  and  mis- 
gures  made 
e  "children 
ge  of   self- 

•e  but  char- 
procession, 
bnildiug  an 
inues. 

lineage,  as 
ends  all  its 
icquired  his 
irdeued  into 
IS  put  upon 

large  in  pro- 
luced,  a  fact 
y,  this  early 
account  for 
ng  the  most 

id  the  condi- 
mps  are  yet 
stence  where 
y  illuess  and 
ly  with  such 
•e:  but  more 
)udilion8,  lor 

md  exclusive 
'  force,  which 
s  and  dress, 
ozon  civiliza- 
nsified.  Uu- 
by  centuries, 
rjk  races  are 
displace,  are 


We  cannot  avoid  admitting  that  the  Chinese  are  one  of  the  oldest  families 
of  the  ancient  world;  yet  they  are  by  no  means  the  oldest.  Until  the  seventh 
century  before  the  Christian  era,  they  were  perfect  strangers  to  every  form  of 
idolatry.  Pure  Chinese  appear  lil:e  a  race  absolutely  distinct  from  nations 
by  whom  they  are  surrounded,  dififering  in  physical  characteristics  of  form* 
color,  and  expression ;  in  language,  in  their  written  characters,  their  litera- 
ture, and  religious  observances.  Unchanged  by  foreign  conquests,  by  exten- 
sive intermixture  with  any  foreign  race,  they  have  developed  within  them- 
selves, preserving  and  perhaps  intensifying  their  type;  governed  and  civilized 
by  the  principles  contained  in  their  own  classic  literature,  and  in  their  pure 
and  excellent  book,  the  Chou-king,  compiled  fully  3,000  years  ago,  xrcni  their 
more  ancient  literature,  much  as  many  suppose  Moses  to  have  compiled  the 
Pentateuch,  or  as  Heroditus  compiled  early  Grecian  history. 

China  Las  her  ancient  picture  writings,  but  no  ancient  idols.  She  has  her 
literature  older  than  the  Sanscrit  races.  When  the  great  pyramid  of  Menes 
was  built,  in  the  fourth  dynasty  of  Egypt,  B.  C.  3893,  we  find  one  vast 
and  expanded  system  of  idolatry  throughout  Asia,  and  the  countries  border- 
ing on  the  Mediterranean,  all  worshiping  emblems,  more  or  less  types  of  the 
sun  or  solar  principle,  China  standing  alone — far  back  in  the  twilight  of  his- 
tory— is  a  solitary  exception  on  the  continent  of  Asia. 

Language  is  a  test  of  social  contact,  not  of  race.  Undoubtedly  the  first 
expression  of  human  thoughts  were  by  configurations  of  countenance,  such 
as  smiles  and  scowls,  indicating  pleasure,  dread,  or  anger.  With  the  inven- 
tion of  complicated  f  irms  in  language,  capable  of  complete  expression  with- 
out emotion,  came  deceit,  frequently  followed  by  loss  of  harmonious  social 
relations,  and  developing  combativeiiess.  No  primitive  history,  at  present 
known,  conveys  any  reliable  account  of  an  aboriginal  language  much  ante- 
rior to  that  of  China;  although  that  of  the  ancient  people  of  Yucatan  and 
adjoining  American  nations,  as  shown  by  picture-writings  on  their  monu- 
ments, appears  to  have  been  more  ancient. 

Both  peoples,  in  common  with  the  Egyptians,  expressed  thoughts  by  pic- 
ture-writing and  in  hieroglyphics.  While  other  surviving  nations  improved 
upon  this  original  style,  by  developing  the  phonetic;  inhabitants  of  China 
alor.",  became  exclusively  confirmed  in  their  monosyllabic  language,  and  their 
marner  of  vocal  communication,  is  still  very  peculiar  and  spasmodic 
iu  sound  and  utterance.  Their  hieroglyphics,  which,  in  early  ages,  expressed 
a  single  substantial  thought,  were  subsequently  assumed  as  syllabic  repre- 
sentations, and  became  synthetic  or  coinpouii'l  forms  of  expression.  Thus, 
to-duy,  21''  Chinese  ladicals  are  made  use  of,  in  over  50,0U0  ideographic  com- 
binalions. 

To  investi^^ate  tbi"  subject,  requires  extensive  rciiearcli  in  a  multitude  of 
directions — physiological,  linguistic,  religious,  traditional  geogrnpbical,  and 
migratoritil — for  it  is  often  by  their  mutual  compHrisou  only,  that  satisfactory 
results  are  reachad.  The  wider  view  we  can  compass,  the  clearer  our  under- 
standing of  general  laws.  There  is  in  force  a  law  of  decreasing  vitality,  as 
well  as  of  evolution,  both  alike  depeiuUng  upon  the  refinement  of  surround- 
ing conditions.  Great  disturbances  have  aliected  the  earth's  surface  and  all 
living  things,  since  the  tertiary  period,  when  our  present  zoology  fair.y  started 


\ 


y 


12 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE    CALIFORNIA 


into  being.  To  all  these  considerations,  must  bo  added  the  ancient  migrations 
which  the  different  families  of  mankind  have  passed  through,  nnder  the 
changing  conditions  imposed  upon  them  by  geographical  and  climatic  neces- 
sities, and  thus  a  systematic  ai-rangemeiit  of  facts  is  finally  indicated  Phys- 
ical geography  teaches  us  that  of  the  two  great  elements,  water  and  land,  the 
latter,  which  is  matter  in  a  more  advanced  form,  is  tar  superior  in  the  animal 
and  vegeti<b).e  'ife  to  which  it  gives  origin;  likewise,  that  low  and  swampy 
land  is  fatal  to  health  and  the  higliest  development  of  man.  Geology  and 
Palaeontology  show  this  to  have  been  equally  true  of  the  flora  and  fauna,  in 
ancient  days. 

Neither  tropical  Africa  nor  Asia  are  adapted  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  constitu- 
tion; every  while  colony  there  has  been  wasted  by  sickness  and  death;  yet 
this  is  the  native  and  natural  climate  of  the  dark  races,  who  are  there  as  much 
at  home  as  is  the  polar  bear  on  the  shores  of  Greenland.  When  at  Saigon, 
on  the  Meikong  river,  I  was  told  by  an  officer  of  the  French  colony,  that  24 
per  cent,  of  French  troops  stationed  there  died  annuiiHy.  The  British  occu- 
pation of  low  lands  in  the  southern  portion  of  India,  is  scarcely  more  than  a 
military  possession,  so  far  as  Europeans  are  concerned,  who  cannot  long  live 
there,  but  would  soon  become  extinct  but  for  the  constant  intiux  of  fresh 
immigration.  There,  a  European  struggles  for  existence,  a  prey  to  fever  and 
dysentery,  and  is  unequal  to  severe  labor.  White  women,  as  a  rule,  are 
especial  sufferers,  rallying  but  poorly  from  any  illness.  White  men  must 
yield  the  tropics  to  the  dark  races.  The  reverse  is  also  true;  negroes  are  not 
comfortable  in  the  frigid  zone.  The  American  residents  of  New  England 
States,  as  at  present  constituted,  have  a  continual  tight  with  existing  condi- 
tions of  climate,  and  their  survivors  and  desceiidents,  now  in  process  of 
acclimatization  as  a  race,  are  assuming  a  somewhat  typical  form. 

Whenever  we  examine  nature,  we  tind  a  perfect  adaptation  of  animals  to 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  live.  The  constitutional  temperaments 
of  the  different  races  seem  to  vary.  The  dark  races  are  less  developed  than 
the  white;  they  have  a  less  nervous  sensibility,  for  their  physical  organiza- 
tion is  less  delicate.  Van  Amridge  says :  "  rhe  dark  races  expire  less  car- 
bonic acid  from  their  lungs  than  the  white,  but  transpire  the  fetid  matter 
chiefly  by  the  skin."  According  to  Dr.  Knox,  the  nerves  of  their  limbs  are 
one-third  less  than  the  Saxon  of  equal  height.  Great  differences  of  shape  in 
the  pelvis  of  different  races,  have  been  classified  V)y  Doctors  Vrolik  and 
Weber,  who  thus  report  the  four  principal  races;  "The  European  is  oval; 
the  American,  round;  the  Mongolian,  square;  and  African,  oblong." 

The  characteristics  most  relied  on  for  the  discrimination  of  races,  are  the 
color  of  the  skin,  structure  of  the  hair,  and  conformation  of  the  skull  and 
skeleton.  Transitions  from  one  to  the  other  are  so  gradnal,  that  it  seems 
almost  impossible  to  draw  any  exact  and  arbitrary  line  of  inter-demarkation. 
We  now  see  the  various  branches  of  mankin  1  confined  to  distinct  localities, 
mainly  bounded  by  isothermal  lines,  with  distinction  of  form  and  color,  with 
different  social  relations,  religions,  governments,  habits,  and  intellectual 
powers.  Wherever  men  have  migrated,  they  appear  to  have  found  and  dis- 
placed an  aboriginal  nation,  and  no  record  is  believed  to  e.\ist  of  any  people 
ever  migrating  to  a  land  which  they  found  entirely  destitute  of  inhabitants, 


ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


13 


migriitions 
tindor  the 
latic  neces- 
:ed  Phys- 
1(1  liiiid,  the 
the  nniinal 
id  swampy 
eology  and 
d  fauna,  in 

u  constitii- 

death;  yet 

ere  as  much 

at  Saigon, 

)ny,  that  24 

iritish  occu- 

nore  than  a 

lot  long  hve 

iix  of  fresh 

to  fever  and 

a  rule,  arp 

men  must 

•oes  are  not 

3w  England 

iting  condi- 

process  of 

f  animals  to 
mperaments 
eloped  than 
al  organiza- 
ire  less  car- 
Fetid  matter 
ir  limbs  are 
of  shape  in 
Vrolik  and 
pan  is  oval; 

368,  are  the 
8  skull  and 
at  it  seems 
3markation. 
;t  localities, 
color,  with 
intellectual 
ud  and  dis- 
any  people 
inhabitants. 


in  some  of  the  various  stages  of  human  development.  Adelung  reckons  the 
total  population  of  the  earth  as  1,288  millions,  professing  1,100  forms  of 
religion,  among  which  there  exists  3,G(54  known  languages  or  dialects,  viz.: 
937  Asiatic,  587  European,  270  African,  1,624  American.  These  are  signifi- 
cant facts. 

Sir  Charles  Lyell  is  inclined  to  admit  that  an  imperfect  form  of  man  was 
living  when  the  tertiary  stata  was  deposited.  Agassiz,  who  pronounced 
America  the  oldest  continent  extant,  measured  the  coral  growth  during  a 
given  number  of  years  along  the  southern  half  of  Florida,  which,  he  asserts, 
has  been  formed  by  accretion  during  the  geological  period  known  as  recent, 
and  must  have  required  not  less  than  135,000  years  to  form.  We  may  arrange 
epochs  in  their  order  of  sequence,  but  not  of  date,  for  in  contemplating  the 
vastness  of  such  a  past,  the  mind  becomes  lost  iu  amazement  at  the  vista 
opened  into  antiquity.  The  histories  of  China  contain  records  of  the  past, 
which  modern  chronologies  have  insufficient  room  to  measure.  The  limits 
of  history  are  steadily  receding,  and  Greece  and  Rome  are  taking  their  proper 
positions  in  a  comparatively  modern  era.  Science  is  developing  unanswer- 
able proofs  of  the  greater  antiquity  of  the  human  race,  than  current  ecclesi- 
astical histories  have  been  supposed  to  allow.  Greater  freedom  in  chronology 
is  absolutely  necessary.  No  sound  religious  principles  have  aught  to  fear 
from  true  interpreters  of  antiquity.  Truth,  in  all  its  natural  simplicity,  is 
susceptible  of  proof,  and  reason  is  its  steadfast  supporter.  Nature's  own 
religion  is  grander  than  any  human  conception.  In  the  dark  ages,  mysteries, 
miracles,  and  absolute  imposture  stood  in  the  way  of  absolute  truth.  Evolu- 
^  tion  gives  to  the  Infinite  higher  attributes,  and  more  nearly  connects  him 
'  with  all  created  things.  The  God  of  the  true  scientist  is  grander  and  more 
comprehensible  to  n.ankind.  It  takes  us  half  our  lives  to  unlearn  and  eradi- 
cate errors  honestly  taught  us  in  youth,  with  perfect  good  faith  and  intention, 
i  which  persistently  cling  to  us  until  displaced  by  the  sound  reasoning 
!  powers  of  maturer  years.  Each  conscience  is  but  the  result  of  its  own  moral 
education.  It  is  composed  of  ideas  it  has  fed  on.  Many  imbibe,  hereditarily, 
?the  opinions  of  their  forefathers,  and  venerate  them  because  they  were  first 
npon  their  mind,  which  circumstance  alone  produces  to  them  an  unsophis- 
ticated conviction  of  their  truthfulness.     None  are  free  but  those  whom  Truth 

makes  free : 

* 

"Moot  men  by  education  are  misled, 
They  bo  believe  becaiiRe  they  ro  are  bred; 
The  prieBt  rontiinieB  what  tlie  nurse  began, 
And  BO  the  child  imposes  on  the  man." 

America  was  undoubtedly  peopled  many  ages  before  Julius  Cresar  landed 
in  barbaric  Britain,  and  many  of  the  colossal  structures,  whose  ruins  still 
excite  the  wonder  of  the  wandering  Indinns  of  Central  America  and  Peru, 
doubtless  passed  from  use  long  before  tl.  3  Tartar  conquerors  in  Central  Asia 
drove  their  hordes  eastward,  or  Attila  and  his  Huns  swept  his  legions  west- 
ward  from  the  great  wall  of  China  and  the  steppes  of  Ancient  Tartary. 

t  jese  historians  assert  that  in  the  fifth  year  of  the  reign  of  Yao,  B,  C. 
I  2,353,  strangers  from  the  south,  of  the  family  of  Yoiie-Tchang,  brought,  as  a 

^■^ 


# 


Zf 


14 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


if 


present  from  n  mttritime  kingdom  in  southern  seus,  a  great  turtle,  three  feet 
long  by  three  feet  wide,  and  very  old,  on  whose  back  was  written  a  history  of 
the  world,  from  its  commencement  to  that  time,  which  Yao  ordered 
transcribed  and  preserved.  Turtles  have  long  had  a  peculiar  religious  signifi- 
cance in  Japan,  and  also  among  American  aborigines  at  Copan,  where  a  splen- 
did stone  altar  of  great  antiquity,  in  the  image  of  a  similar  tortoise,  yet 
remains. 

Chinese  culture,  dwelling  apart  in  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  Asia, 
has  developed  and  retained  distinctive  national  types,  coldly  conservative, 
while  nations  less  peculiar,  and  perhaps  more  adventui'ous,  rose,  scattered, 
and  passed  away  almost  by  scores.  The  isolation  of  their  peculiar  civiliza- 
tion must  have  resulted  from  the  physical  conformation  of  the  spot  they  occu- 
pied, encircled  by  protecting  ranges  of  mountains,  and  forbidding  natural 
barriers. 

Eminent  Chinese  historians,  after  describing  the  fabulous  and  mythical 
ages,  which  are  imperfect  and  idealized  recollections  of  events,  peoples,  eras, 
and  civilizations;  and  renowned  individuals  whose  exact  history  had  become 
confused,  extinct  or  legendary,  when  their  first  authentic  records  of  ancient 
history  were  penned;  tome  to  the  rei.-n  of  men.  Greek  history  appears  lim- 
ited when  looking  beyond  into  Oriental  records,  and  proves  but  a  scanty 
stream  lending  to  a  broad  ocean  beyond. 

The  deified  rulers  are  naturally  the  most  ancient,  and  are  succeeded  by 
demi-god  desceudents,  in  a  sort  of  middle  age.  The  advent  of  conquering 
heroes  from  a  foi'eign  soil,  by  introducing  a  new  element  into  history,  may 
have  changed  the  national  era.  A  careful  study  of  the  various  ancient  his- 
tories of  the  world  has  led  me  to  infer,  that,  generally,  rulers  who  are  said 
to  have  descended  from  the  gods,  were  merely  successful  invaders  of  the 
country  where  they  died,  and  were  there  canonized  or  deified.  Being  born  in 
a  foreign  land,  no  local  record  existed  of  their  parentage,  and  it  was  easy  to 
ascribe  their  origin  to  supernatural  causes,  while  their  death  being  among  the 
people  whose  traditions  have  come  down  to  us,  was  witnessed  and  recorded. 

All  scholars  experience  difficulty  in  tracing  up.  and  locating  ancient  places, 
as  most  of  them  were  given  new  and  foreign  names,  by  conqiierors  and 
explorers.  Since  the  days  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and  the  ancient  and  long 
continued  sway  of  the  South  Arabians  declined,  and  gave  way  to  the  rise  of 
great  monarchies  in  Western  Asia  and  India,  places  have  received  new  rulers 
and  taken  new  names.  This  is  true  througliout  history,  of  all  countries,  and 
is  more  recently  illustrated  to  us,  in  the  saintly  names  given  by  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  explorers;  or  head-lands  and  islands  re-named  for  British  stamen 
and  their  patrons.  A  less  troublesome  impediment  to  accurate  identification, 
is  found  in  translated  names. 

The  progress  of  science,  and  lingtiistic  and  historic  researches,  continiially 
supplements  our  knowledge  of  the  mighty  past,  whose  history  must  now  be 
worked  back  by  degrees,  and  every  fact  capable  of  yielding  testimony,  pre- 
served and  utilized.  Chinese  records,  extending  to  B.  C.  3,588,  may  yet 
render  valuable  aid  in  perpetuating  much  that  was  destroyed  in  the  lost  libra- 
ries of  rhoniicia,  Chaldea,  and  Egypt.  The  first  era  of  Chinese  history  is 
without  dates,  capable  of  being  accurately  fixed  by  any  measure  known  to  us 


ACADEMY   OF  SCIENCES. 


15 


e,  three  feet 
a  history  of 
i'ao  ordered 
!?iou8  signifi- 
here  a  splen- 
tortoise,  yet 

lity  of  Asia, 
sonservative, 
e,  scattered, 
liar  civiliza- 
ot  they  occn- 
iing  natural 

nd  mythical 
leoples,  eras, 
had  become 
Is  of  ancient 
appears  lim- 
)ut  a  scanty 

ucceeded  by 

conquering 

history,  may 

ancient  hia- 
who  are  said 
aders  of  the 
!eing  born  in 

was  easy  to 
ig  among  the 
nd  recorded, 
cient  places, 
querors  and 
Dt  and  long 

0  the  rise  of 

1  new  rulers 
luntries,  and 
Spanish  and 
itish  stamen 
ieutifloation, 

continually 
lust  now  be 
imony,  pre- 
^8,  may  yet 
le  lost  libra- 
e  history  is 
known  to  ub 


at  the  present  time.  So  of  Methuselah's  age.  We  cannot  believe  Ihat  the 
duration  of  human  life  changed  suddenly  irom  hundreds  of  years  to  three 
score  years  and  ten.  The  change,  if  at  all,  was  in  the  human  measure.  Dur- 
ing our  present  century,  the  average  longevity  of  Great  Britain  has  increased 
nearly  ten  years.  The  true  "elixir  of  life  "  is  a  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
limits  of  our  being,  and  wisdom  to  use  our  powers  so  as  to  obtain  their 
Utmost  capabilities.     Wisdom  is  the  best  use  of  knowledge. 

This  early  Chinese  era  consisted  of  three  dynasties,  who,  successively  with 
their  desceudents,  ruled  the  kingdom  of  China,  whose  dominion  had  not  then 
spread  into  an  empire,  and  the  aggregate  terms  of  their  reigns  must  have 
extended  over  a  lonj{  period  of  time.  This  period  may  represent  the  rule  of 
early  Asiatic  aborigines,  developed  upon  the  soil  of  China. 

Chinese  historians  commence  their  second  and  more  authentic  era  with  the 
reign  of  a  sovereign  named  Tai  Ko  Fpkee,  or  Great  King  Stranger. 
He  commenced  his  reign  B.  C.  3,588,  and  from  this  founder  of  their  line  of 
monarchs,  they  have  preserved  a  national  history  and  true  chronological  suc- 
cession of  their  rulers.  His  name  seems  to  imply  that  he  was  a  foreign  con- 
queror, who  occupied  the  country,  and  doubtless,  at  the  time  of  his  conquest, 
took  no  pains  to  preserve  the  records  of  superseded  dynasties,  which  come 
to  us  only  in  the  form  of  tradition. 

The  pictorial  representations  of  King  Fokee  which  have  come  down  to  us, 
represent  hiui  with  two  small  horns,  similar  to  those  associated  with  the  rep- 
resentations of  Moses,  the  Hebrew  lawgiver.  He  and  his  successor  are  said 
to  have  introduced  into  China  the  hieroglyphic  characters  for  picture  writing, 
somewhat  similar  to  those  fouud  in  Central  America,  and  from  whence  the 
ideograms  now  in  use  are  conceded  to  have  been  dei-ived.  He  taught  bis  peo- 
ple the  motion  of  heavenly  bodies,  the  twelve  celestial  signs,  and  dividtd 
their  time  into  years  and  months,  besides  brinpiug  them  a  knowledge  of  many 
other  useful  arts  and  sciences.  The  sudden  advent  of  so  much  new  knowl- 
edge, brought  by  one  man,  indicates  that  he  came  from  far  away — from  a 
country  with  which  no  previous  communication  had  existed.  As  he  intro- 
duced a  new  measure  of  time,  we  can  but  estimate  the  duration  of  eleven 
reigns  which  preceded  him. 

Probably  the  solar  day  was  the  earliest  measure  of  time;  then,  the  lunar 
month;  and  lastly,  the  solar  year.  The  various  words  ftsed  in  all  languages, 
and  interpreted  to  us  years,  meant,  simply,  the  periods  of  time  which  at  the 
moment  constituted  its  measure.  Thus,  if  Methuselah  lived  t)G9  periods  of 
time  when  the  lunar  month  was  the  accepted  measure,  he  died  at  74%  years 
of  age,  which  is  not  improbable. 

The  great  Chinese  history  of  Tse-ma  Chi-ang,  written  B.  C.  122,  and  pur- 
porting to  be  an  accurate  transcript  of  all  earlier  existing  histories,  which  it 
Was  desirable  to  consolidate  and  preserve;  narrates  events,  chronologically, 
from  the  reign  of  Hoang-Ti,  which  commenced  B.  0.  2,697,  when  he  was 
eleven  years  old;  during  his  minority  the  kingdom  was  governed  by  wise 
•MXil  prudent  counselors,  who,  it  says,  took  great  care  of  the  young  monarch, 
and  educated  him  in  all  the  useful  arts  and  sciences  then  known.  It  is  re- 
corded that  during  his  reign  physicians  first  learned  to  feel  the  pulse;  the 
jfnagnetic  needle  was  first  used,  pointing  to  the  south ;  and  civilization  greatly 


m 


a  Pi 


ti^<-' 


16 


PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   CALIFORNIA 


advanced.  He  lived  a  iisiful  life,  was  greatly  respected,  and  died  at  a  ripe 
old  nge.  During  a  portion  of  his  reign,  a  powerfid  revolt  was  successfully 
put  down,  iudicatinj^  a  mixed  race,  with  the  antagonisms  of  conflicting  opin- 
ions. Five  of  his  desctndents  succeeded,  in  tuin,  to  his  throne.  Then  came 
Tai  Yao,  followed  by  rnti  7st  rune,  B.  C,  2,21)4,  during  whoso  reign  a  great 
deluge  occurred  in  Asia,  which  flooded  fifteen  provinces  of  China  and  drowned 
great  numbers  of  inhabitants.  Some  portions  of  the  country  remained  under 
water  for  several  years  thereafter. 

This  rupture  of  a  natural  barrier,  which  held  in  check  some  extensive  inland 
basin  of  water,  existing  at  a  higher  level,  occurred  just  fifty-four. years  after 
Archbishop  Usher  fixes  the  arch-catastrophe  of  Hebrew  tradition,  and  was 
doubtless  like  the  Noachian  flood,  a  crisis  in  the  physical  history  of  the  region 
where  it  occurred.  It  is  highly  probable  that  the  groat  interior  alkaline  des- 
erts of  North  America,  where  the  successive  water  lines  around  the  surfaces 
of  every  elevation  of  its  various  levels,  clearly  indicate  the  former  presence 
of  vast  inland  basins  of  water;  have  at  some  remote  period  been,  in  like 
manner,  drawn  ofif  and  precipitated  upon  lower  levels  of  this  continent,  in 
their  journey  towards  the  common  level  of  the  ocean.  This  is  also  shown  by 
the  presence  of  ancient  river  beds  across  the  present  summits  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains.  Notning  seems  to  impede  the  execution  of  unerring 
physical  laws,  and  in  the  consideration  of  general  history,  natural  science 
shows  no  relation  between  such  physical  calamities  and  personal  guilt. 

B.  C.  2,233,  the  next  Emperor,  T<i  Yn,  caused  canals  to  bo  cut,  to  convey 
to  the  sea  the  immense  bodies  of  water  which,  during  the  reign  of  his  prede- 
cessor, had  been  precipitated  upon  and  overflowed  so  large  a  part  of  China. 
By  this  means  many  deep  river  beds  were  finally  cut,  and  continued  to  be 
worn  away  by  the  receding  waters,  until  the  whole  country  was  freed  from 
inundation. 

His  eleventh  descendent  and  successor  was  a  tyrant,  and  was  banished  in 
the  fifty-second  year  of  his  age,  and  king  Chhuj  Tawf  came  to  the  throne, 
B.  C.  1,766,  and  died  1,753  B.  C.  During  his  reign  c  great  famine  existed 
in  Chin  I,  which  the  records  say  lasted  seven  yenrs.  Joseph's  famine  in 
Egypt  occurred  B.  C.  1,707,  or  forty-six  years  after  this  date.  These  coinci- 
dences are  merely  cited  as  suggestive  to  historical  students. 

It  is  desirable  that  the  historical  records  of  all  ancient  nations  should  be 
sought  out  and  compared ;  and  to  our  linguistic  and  archaeological  students 
on  the  Pacific,  the  early  histories  of  China  and  Japan  should  be  made  the 
subject  of  careful  study.  Much  mentnl  and  social  cultivation  existed  in  Asia 
when  Europe  was  yet  in  her  dark  and  undeveloped  ages.  China  and  Japan, 
as  well  as  all  the  nations  of  Asia,  yet  contain  many  ancient  records,  that  may 
well  repay  cai^ful  study,  revealing  traces  of  a  civilization  whose  history  is 
incredibly  remote.  Ere  the  ancient  respect  for  sacred  records  has  become 
impaired,  and  they  are  cast  aside  or  destroyed  in  tlie  ecstasy  of  a  new-found 
religion,  or  the  mechanical  wonders  of  a  scientific  civilization,  earnest  and 
reliable  students  may  acquire  much  important  testimony  among  the  archives 
of  India,  China  and  Japan.  Few  ancient  races  have  preserved  a  literature  of 
equal  value  with  the  Chinese.  The  great  past  of  prehistoric  humanity  bears 
traces  of  activity  and  commercial  intercourse  throughout  Asia. 


ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


17 


ied  at  a  ripe 

Kiiccessfully 

iflictiug  cpiii- 

Then  came 

reign  a  greiit 

aud  drowned 

iiiained  under 

tensive  inland 

ir, years  after 

tion,  and  was 

of  the  region 

alkaline  dcs- 

thp  surfaces 

•mer  presence 

been,  in  like 

continent,  in 

also  shown  by 

of  the  Sierra 

of  unerring 

atural  science 

ill  guilt. 

cut,  to  convey 

I  of  his  prode- 

3art  of  China. 

intinued  to  be 

as  freed  from 

.3  banished  iu 
3  the  throne, 
ramine  existed 
I's  famine  in 
These  coinci- 

sns  should  be 
?ical  students 
be  made  the 
xisted  in  Asia 
la  and  Japan, 
•rds,  that  may 
386  history  is 
I  has  become 
a  new-found 
,  earnest  and 
;  the  archives 
a  literature  of 
amanity  bears 


About  five  thousand  years  before  the  Christian  era,  the  Sanskrit  branch  of 
ti*e  Aryan  race  invaded  and  occupied  Northern  India,  while  the  Arabian 
Oushites,  dwelling  in  Arabia,  held  control  of  Southern  Arabia.  These  South 
Arabians  held  Innumerable  colonies,  and  were  unrivaled  in  power  and  com- 
mercial dominion.  They  early  established  great  influence  as  a  maritime  peo- 
ple along  the  coast  of  South-western  Asia,  colonizing  much  of  the  Asiatic 
seaboard  in  the  deepest  antiquity, — not,  however,  including  the  present  Chi- 
nese territory,  but  exercised  a  widespread  influence  from  the  extremes  of  India, 
even  to  Norway,  acting  an  important  part  as  pioneers  in  spreading  aud  devel- 
oping early  civilization.  The  nomadic  tribes' of  Asia  have  been  classed  as  of 
Seuietic  origin. 

China,  although  v  ell  known,  and  mentioned  in  the  ancient  Sanskrit  writ- 
ings, under  the  name  of  Yania,  was  never  included  in  statements  of  the 
migrations  of  races  and  peoples  throughout  Western  Asia,  Hindostan,  and 
the  islands  of  the  Indian  Sea.  In  remote  antiquity,  the  Chinese  nation  ap- 
pears to  have  lived  within  itself,  cut  ofl'  from  active  communication  with  any 
neighboring  people. 

According  to  Arabian  traditions.  Ad  was  the  primeval  father  of  the  pure 
Arabians,  and  built  a  city  iu  Arabia  which  became  great  and  powerful.  The 
Adites  are  referred  to  in  the  earliest  dawn  of  Arabian  history,  as  enterprising, 
rich  and  powerful,  having  great  cities  of  wonderful  magnificence.  They  were 
skillful  builders,  rich  iu  gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones,  showing  them  ac- 
quainted with  metals.  Numerous  appliances  of  our  civilization  had  their 
origin  far  back  in  the  obscurity  of  ages  now  pre-historic,  and  Adam  may  be 
but  the  Hebrew  tradition  of  the  ancient  Adites  of  Arabia,  who  must  them- 
selves have  had  a  long  line  of  o'acestry,  to  have  developed  and  acquired  such 
civilization.  Adam  was,  perhaps,  simply  the  ideal  embodiment  of  a  beginning 
of  huntanity,  typifie  1  to  the  Hebrews  by  an  Adite  patriarch,  beyond  the  expe- 
rience of  their  own  history,  into  which  he  was  adopted  by  Moses,  as  the 
ancestor  of  their  race.  It  was  an  effort  to  extend  their  national  lineage  far 
back  to  an  original  First  Cause.  The  distinctive  Hebrew  race  descended 
from  Abraham,  that  mugniflcent  sheik,  the  mighty  Mesopotaniau  prince; 
Israel's  ancestral  hero  and  first  tlistinctive  Hebrew  personality;  great  grand- 
sire  of  the  princely  Joseph,  Lord  Chancellor  of  Ejrypt,  Prime  Minister  of 
the  first  Sesostris,  and  monotheistic  chief  of  an  illustrious  line.  Thus  he 
stands,  in  bold  relief,  on  the  canvas  of  tradition,  as  a  great  leader  of 
human  kind  in  the  period  comprised  in  the  first  essays  of  Hebrew  literature. 

Our  opinion  of  the  general  inaccessibility  of  China  from  other  parts  of 
the  continent  of  Asia,  in  early  times,  is  confirmed  by  a  passage  in  the  history 
of  Besorus,  relating  the  conquests  of  the  Arabian  sovereign,  Schamar 
•Janisch,  Abou  Karib,  who  reigned  over  Chaldea,  and  245  years  before  the  rise 
of  the  Ass^  ian  empire  carried  his  arms,  B.  C.  1,518,  into  Central  Asia,  occu- 
ipied  Sarmacaud,  and  for  a  long  time  attempted,  without  success,  the  invasion 
of  China.  Humboldt  describes  an  Himyatic  inscription  existing  at  Sarma- 
jeand  in  the  14th  century,  in  characters  expressing,  "In  the  name  of  God, 
Sch(unar  larasch  has  erected  this  edifice  to  the  sun,  his  Lord."  All  facts  go  to 
show  that  migrations  over  Central  Asia,  from  Arabia  across  the  continent, 
must  have  passed  north  of  China,  (which  country  seems  to  have  maintained 


^'.^rffya.  t. 


18 


PROCEEDINGS   OF  THE  CALIFORNIA 


i! 


her  individuality  nearly  intact),  and  reached  the  shores  of  the  Pndflc  near 
the  peninsula  of  Corea,  which  ia  still  inhabited  by  a  populous  nation,  quite 
unlike  the  Chinese  race.  Many  abori^^ines  of  Central  Asia  were  doubtless 
driven  toward  the  coast  by  these  Arabian  conquerors.  These  South  Arabians 
■ware  a  people  older  than  the  Aryans.  The  great  ages  of  Cushite  civilization, 
to  which  we  are  told  they  succeeded,  closed  at  a  period  which  was  very  ancient 
when  the  book  of  Job,  the  oldest  book  of  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  was  penned 
as  a  Persian  poem. 

Testimony  is  universal  that  the  oldest  nations  succeeded  older  pre-existing 
peoples,  and  generally  received  tVdr  highest  ideas  from  abroad,  showing  a 
descent  of  ideas  as  well  as  of  blood.  A  constant  admixture  of  races,  peoples 
and  nations  has  been  successively  going  on  for  ages.  It  is  only  in  some 
secluded  spot  that  we  may,  at  this  late  day,  discover  traces  of  anything 
approaching  to  an  early  type,  with  slight  recent  admixture.  Such  si)ecimens, 
if  they  exist  at  all,  cannot  but  be  extremely  rare,  and,  like  the  Miauts  of 
China  and  some  remnants  in  the  Tyrolese  Alps,  inhabit  regions  virtually 
inaccessible. 

The  huge  s  me  structures,  cities  and  temples  being  unearthed  in  Yuen- 
tan,  argue  an  enormous  early  population.  The  ruins  of  Copan,  and  disin- 
tegrating pyramids  of  Palenque,  are  convincing  proof  of  a  great  pre-historic 
race  in  Central  America,  at  an  immensely  early  period;  which  must  have 
occupied  the  same  relative  positions  toward  North  and  South  America  that 
Asia  Minor  did,  in  remote  ages,  to  Central  Asia  and  Africa.  The  peculiar 
construction  of  all  the  arches  found  among  the  buried  cities  of  Yucatan  may 
lead  to  the  discovery  of  races  cognate  to  its  early  inhabitants.  The  same 
principle  of  arch  was  used  in  very  early  times  by  Egyptians,  Greeks,  and 
Etrurians. 

Notwithstanding  the  frequent  disastrous  fires,  and  destruction  of  records 
by  conquerors  and  founders  of  dynasties,  who  have  annihilated  much  valua- 
ble material,  China,  Japan,  and  the  interior  of  India  have  many  copies  and 
manuscript  translations  of  very  ancient  works  and  histories,  long  retained 
among  their  sacred  treasuries,  rich  archteological  prizes  for  modern  explorers 
to  unearth,  equal  in  interest  to  the  lost  history  of  Iran,  mentioned  in  the 
Dabistan  and  other  Asiatic  writings. 

By  an  extended  research  into  ancient  histories,  many  plausible  reasons  are 
found,  which  argue  the  possibility,  and  almost  probability,  that  some  early 
aborigines  of  the  pure  Chinese  race  may  have  crossed  by  sea  from  the  coast 
of  Peru  to  China  in  an  early  or  remote  age  of  the  world.  Kecent  travelers 
in  Peru  inform  us,  that  its  aboriginal  races  have,  like  our  North  American 
Indians,  become  nearly  extinct;  and  the  only  remaining  trices  are  found 
among  the  China-chola,  a  mixed  result  from  Spanish  and  Portuguese  ances- 
tors. Last  year  my  attention  was  called  to  an  article  in  a  South  American 
paper,  describing  the  remnant  of  a  race  of  aboriginal  Mongolians  or  Chinese, 
found  among  the  high  table  lands  upon  the  western  slope  of  the  Andes. 

Phoenicians  and  Egyptians,  who  each  received  hieroglyphical  characters 
from  a  common  source,  originating  in  an  older  people,  ascribe  them  to  Taut. 
The  Chinese  ascribe  them  to  Tai  Ko  Fokee,  their  Great  Stranger  King,  who 
reigned  B.  C.  3588.    Many  cuiiov.s  coincidences  point  to  the  supposition  that 


he  may 
ruins  still 
closely  CO 
ideograph 


ACADEMY    OF   SCIENCES. 


m 


kific  uear 
liou,  quite 

1  doubtlcHs 

I  Arabians 

ilizafiou, 

ry  ancient 

[e-existin;^ 
bowing  a 
peoples 
in  some 
'inythiug 
Jfcimens, 
linuts  of 
virtually 

in  Yuca- 
nd  disin- 

3-historic 

ust  have 

riea  that 

peculiar 

itan  may 

be  same 

iks,  and 

records 
b  valua- 
)ies  and 
'■etained 
tplorers 

in  the 

ons  are 

e  early 

e  coast 

ivelers 

lerican 

fouad 

ances- 

erican 

inese, 

ixcters 
Taut. 
,  who 
>  that 


he  may  have  brought  them  from  Peru  or  Central  America,  where,  among 
niins  still  existing,  there  hftH  been  discovered  much  early  picture-writing, 
cloHely  corresponding  to  early  Chinese  characters,  ccmiprisiug  the  21(5  radical 
ideographs  now  used.  Thus,  heaven  is  expressed  by  three  horizontal  lines, 
slightly  curved;  and  earth  by  a  cross  within  a  circle.  In  disooveiiea  at  Copan 
is  a  figure  strikingly  resembling  the  Chinese  symbol  of  Fukee,  both  nations 
representing  him  like  Moses,  as  a  lawgiver,  with  two  small  horns.  Many 
figures  on  Peruvian  water-vessels,  of  great  antiquity,  are  identical  with  those 
found  in  Egyi)tian  temples;  birds'  heads,  for  example,  attached  to  figures 
resembling  a  comma,  bat  intended  to  represent  tongues;  and  other  remark- 
able coincidences.  Either  one  people  learned  from  the  other,  or  both  acquired 
these  forms  from  a  common  source.  Many  physico-geographical  facts  favor 
the  hypothesis,  that  it  is  more  rational  to  conclude  that  Egypt  received  them 
from  America,  through  China — possibly  through  Fokee,  or  some  predecessor 
in  very  remote  ages.  Recent  scientific  explorations  are  reported  to  have 
exhumed  Chinese  sacred  mottoes,  carved  on  tombs  in  Egypt — counterparts  of 
phrases  in  use  to-day — revealing  the  existence  of  an  intercourse  when  China 
was  ruled  by  kings  anterior  to  Moses. 

The  present  written  language  of  China  is  undoubtedly  an  imported  method, 
advanced  from  such  picture-writings  as  those  of  the  ancient  Peruvians,  or 
primitive  hieroglyphical  signs  of  ancient  Egypt.  Among  some  nations,  men- 
tal progress  evolved  a  simple  alphabet,  while  others  remained  content  with 
the  increasing  complications  of  ideographic  signs,  for  syllables  and  objects. 
Egypt,  like  China,  was  tenacious  of  her  individual  peculiarities,  and  long 
retained  her  hieroglyphic  type.  She  finally  abandoned  it,  while  China  clung 
to  but  improved  it. 

The  South  Arabians  and  their  descendants,  the  Phcenicianc,  having  an 
extended  commerce  established  throughout  the  Indiar,  Ocean,  with  every 
known  shore,  undoubtedly  passed  more  readily  into  a  simple  phonetic  alpha- 
bet, better  adapted  to  the  i^ractical  wants  of  a  commercial  people.  Tablets 
have  been  discovered  among  their  ancient  ruins,  by  which  the  various 
changes  are  readily  traced. 

Chinese  characters,  so  long  surrounded  by  the  ultra  conservatism  of 
an  impenetrable  isolation,  have  undoubtedly  developed  from  these  common 
forms  of  natural  objects,  and  subsequently  been  adapted  to  easy  and  rapid 
writing,  with  a  peculiar  style  of  brush,  and  their  manner  of  holding  it. 

The  consideration  of  whether  the  Chinese  people  originally  developed  in 
Asia  or  abroad,  bears  an  important  relation  to  the  origin  of  the  Japanese  race, 
the  subject  we  are  ultimately  investigating  and  shall  consider  in  our  next 
paper.  In  seeking  the  initial  points  whence  migrations  have  diverged,  we 
naturally  gather  all  possibilities,  whence  we  select  probabilities,  in  the  hope 
of  finally  eliciting  absolute  truth.  We  shall  be  compelled  to  limit  this  already 
lengthy  paper  to  setting  forth  certain  fundamental  principles  useful  in  re- 
search; and  to  a  collection  of  evidence,  the  full  discussion  of  which  will 
necessarily  remain  for  a  future  occasion. 

Without,  in  any  manner,  endorsing  the  following  hypothesis,  we  shall 
simply  aim  to  shadow  forth  a  few  liossibilities,  which  the  consideration  of 
many  curious  iacts  have  suggested  during  the  laborious  details  of  an  elabo- 
rate search. 


20 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


How  came  the  Chinese — a  people  so  ancient,  so  reserved,  and  so  wholly 
unlike  their  surrounding  neighbors,  or  indeed  any  other  race  upon  the  conti- 
nent of  Awia — to  be  thus  alone  in  this  corner  of  a  continent,  walled  in  apart 
from  all  neighboring  races?  We  may  reasonably  doubt  the  assumption  of 
any  spontaneous  growth  in  the  country  they  now  inhabit.  Conjectured 
migrations  among  still  speechless  societies,  at  an  epoch  anterior  to  the  formii, 
tion  of  nations,  are  beyond  our  present  ability  to  trace.  We  can  only  surmise 
■whether  eath  continent  evolved  a  type  of  manhood  separately,  or  whether  all 
higher  races  have  resulted  from  the  various  differentiations  and  dispersions 
from  a  single  locality,  of  a  common  ancestor  already  developed  xip  to  the 
lowest  types  of  a  speechless  animal,  tending  to  manhood. 

Our  best  researches  indicate  an  enormous  antiquity  for  man  on  the  Ameri- 
can continent,  and  an  advance  in  general  form  and  brain  capacity,  with, 
doubtless,  a  modification  of  color,  since  a  very  early  period.  In  very  remote 
times,  there  appears  to  have  existed  at  least  two  very  distinct  populations, 
differing,  in  fact,  more  widely  than  any  existing  aborigines  of  the  continent. 
Portions  of  North  America  had  been  occupied  by  races  far  more  advanced 
than  its  occupants  when  recently  discovered  by  Europeans.  Originating, 
perhaps,  at  a  very  early  period  in  the  elevated  centres  of  the  American  conti- 
nent, wave  after  wave  of  races  may  have  rolled  eastward  and  westward,  or 
northward  and  southward,  to  a  certain  extent,  only  identified  in  America 
to-day  by  slight  signs  that  mark  the  nearly  extinct  descendants  of  the  people 
with  which  they  amalgamated. 

Dogmatic  theology  retreats  before  scientific  truth.  No  one  will,  at  this  day, 
pronounce  the  self-registering  records  of  nature  grave  heresies.  They  are 
vastly  more  enduring,  authentic  and  reliable  testimony  than  the  precarious 
text  of  human  narrators.  It  seems  a  crime  against  true  religion  to  hang  the 
integrity  of  its  moral  principles  upon  the  validity  of  statistics  in  any  book 
which  merely  illustrates,  by  historical  parables,  the  early  development  of  its 
traditional  ideas.  The  innate  virtue  of  its  pure  principles  is  unharmed  by 
legendary  or  dogmatic  absurdities. 

The  Chinese  have  an  immense  antiquity.  They  are  a  peculiar  people,  very 
marked  in  their  features,  and  have  multiplied  so  that  at  present  their  popula- 
tion and  area  of  production  are  so  balanced  that  any  marked  increase  would 
precipitate  a  famine,  and  thus  equalize  conditions.  They  not  only  practice 
economy,  but  enjoy  it,  having  learned  in  centuries  to  live  upon  the  minimum 
and  enjoy  the  maximum  of  life. 

All  other  civilizations  and  emigrations  throughout  Asia  appear  to  have 
moved  from  Asia  Minor,  and  the  high  central  portions  of  the  North  and 
West.  The  Chinese  appear  as  an  isolated  people,  and  have  long  preserved 
the  peculiai'  type  of  a  race  wholly  unlike  any  other  on  the  continent  of  Asia. 
Their  country  is  situated  upon  the  south-eastern  extremity  of  the  continent, 
and  hemmed  in  on  the  west  and  north  by  a  chain  of  mountains  practically 
impassable,  and  now  made  more  so  by  the  great  wall,  1,250  miles  in  length, 
with  which,  B.  C.  220,  they  sought  to  complete  their  isolation. 

If  this  people  did  not  develop  from  the  soil  they  now  occupy,  we  must 
search  for  the  most  probable  mode  of  access  by  which  their  earliest  ancestry 
reached  their  present  home.  In  this  stage  of  the  world,  all  nations  are  more 
or  less  composite. 


so  wholly 
the  conti- 
(1  iu  apart 
niption  of 
oiijectured 
thi)  form., 
ily  8urnii.se 
whether  ail 
lirtpersions 
up  to  the 

the  Ameri- 
city,  with, 
ery  remote 
)pulationH, 
continent. 
I  advanced 
riginating, 
ican  conti- 
itward,  or 
America 
the  people 

it  this  day, 
They  are 
precarious 
o  hang  the 
any  book 
aeut  of  its 
larmed  by 

3ople,  very 
>ir  popula- 
sase  would 
ly  practice 
minimum 

r  to  have 
forth  and 
preserved 
it  of  Asia. 
3ontineut, 
)ractically 
n  length, 

we  must 

t  ancestry 

are  more 


ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES. 


21 


The  southern  and  south-eastern  portions  of  China  border  upon  the  ocean, 
and  if  the  earliest  Chinese  came  from  an  opposite  direction  they  must  have 
reached  their  country  by  water.  If  so,  it  may  account  for  their  skiUed  boat- 
men, who  have  lived  upon  the  water  from  time  immemorial,  and  for  the  enor- 
mous fleets  of  junks,  generally  of  large  dimensions,  which  they  possess.  A 
taste  early  cultivated  may  have  come  down  through  many  centuries. 

If  we  first  seek  for  testimony  from  Chinese  records,  we  find  they  ascribe 
their  own  origin  to  the  southern  portion  of  China.  In  order  to  ascertain  how 
they  could  have  reached  there  by  sea,  and  the  direction  whence  they  probably, 
came,  we  must  study  natural  causes,  and  seek  among  winds  and  currents  for 
the  first  natural  distributing  agents,  whose  influence  on  navigation  has  been 
but  recently  overcome  by  clipper  8hii)8  and  steamers  of  modern  construction. 

The  Pacific  is  a  wide  ocean  to  cross,  and  fair  winds  must  have  been  relied 
upon,  for  muscles  could  never  have  paddled  a  direct  course  for  such  a  dis- 
tance. Where,  therefore,  is  the  country,  from  which  they  could  follow  a  fair, 
fixed  wind  in  a  straight  course,  and  be  brought  to  land  upon  the  soutliern 
coast  of  China,  where  they  claim  to  have  originated? 

We  find  iu  the  South  Pacific,  between  the  southern  tropics  and  the  equator, 
a  perpetual  trade  wind  blowing  from  th  ^outh-east.  Towards  the  troi)ics,  it 
blows  more  nearly  from  the  south,  hauling  gradually  into  the  eastward  as  it 
approaches  the  equator.  This  constant  breeze  would  drive  a  vessel  kept 
before  the  wind,  from  a  point  anywhere  on  the  coast  of  Peru,  about  in  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Chin-cha  Islands,  by  a  slightly  curved  but  almost  direct 
line  §18  far  as  the  equator  in  the  direct  course  for  the  coast  of  China. 

In  the  North  Pacific  Ocean,  between  the  tropics  and  equator,  the  north-cast 
trade  wind  exists,  as  the  almost  complementary  counterpart  of  winds  in 
the  aguthern  hemisphere,  likewise  blowing  more  northerly  near  its  northern 
limit,  and  uniting  in  an  almost  due  easterly  wind  near  the  equator.  Thus 
the  south-east  and  north-east  trade  winds  meet,  and  frequently  blow  into  each 
other  along  a  parallel  line,  making  a  continuous  fair  wind,  uniting  them 
at  the  equator,  and  consequently  forming  an  uninterrupted  motive  power,  to 
their  western  limit. 

Now,  if  a  large  junk  were  started  from  the  coast  of  Peru,  near  Central 
America,  and  kept  off  before  these  fair  winds,  there  is  a  strong  probability 
that  in  sixty  days  she  would  strike;  the  southern  coast  of  China,  about  where 
early  Chinese  traditions  place  the  origin  of  their  race.  This  evidence,  of 
natural  causes,  apparently  points  to  Peru  as  the  possible  home  of  the  Chinese 
ancestral  race.     What  has  Peru  to  offer  in  support  of  such  an  hypothesis? 

In  Heaviside's  "American  Antiquities,"  published  in  1868,  we  find  that 
"some  of  the  western  tribes  of  Brazil  are  so  like  the  Chinese  in  feature  as  to 
be  almost  identical."  There  is  thus  a  j^ossihilit!/  shown,  that  the  ancestry  of 
China  may  have  embarked  in  large  vessels  as  emigrants,  perhaps  from  the 
vicinity  of  the  Chincha  Islands;  or  proceeded  with  a  large  fleet,  like  the  early 
Chinese  expedition  against  Japan,  or  that  of  Julius  C.'csar  against  Britain, 
or  the  Welsh  Prince  Madog  and  his  party — who  sailed  from  Ireland,  and 
landed  in  America  A.  D.  1170,  and,  in  like  manner,  in  the  dateless  antecedure 
of  history,  crossed  from  the  neighborhood  of  Peru  to  the  country  now  known 

Piioo.  Cal.  Acad.  Sol,  Vol.  VI. —8. 


22 


PROCEEDINGS    OF   THE  CALIFORNIA 


to  UH  iia  China.    The  very  name,  Chiuc/ta,  bus  a  ChiueHe  sound,  and  readH 
China,  with  two  letters  dropped. 

For  upwards  of  twenty  centuries,  Chinese  junks  are  known  to  have  beon 
l.irge,  fast,  and  strong;  their  people  skillful  mariners,  excellent  carpenterK, 
and  murine  architects.  They  early  possessed  the  mechanical  skill  to  build 
junks  of  comparatively  great  tonnage,  capable  of  conveying  large  amounts  of 
cargo  and  great  numbers  of  passengers.  If  the  measurements  of  Noah's  ark 
are  correctly  interpreted,  she  was  larger  than  any  ship  of  our  day.  Ship- 
building, as  we  have  shown  in  a  previous  paper,  is  a  very  ancient  art,  known 
long  before  the  days  of  Tarshish.  We  have  no  history  of  its  absolute  incep- 
tion. Monuments  on  land  endure  to  perpettiate  the  memory  of  a  race,  but 
ships  are  of  their  nature  perishable.  A  race  that  could  build  the  magnificent 
temples  and  pyramids  of  Palenque  and  Copan,  in  Yucatan,  could  certain  I  v 
have  their  fleets  upon  the  Pacific  Ocean,  in  ages  long  before  any  exist  ^ 
record.  The  construction  of  a  Peruvian  or  Central  American  fleet  of  1, 
vessels,  in  early  ages,  capable  of  transferring  to  China,  if  not  100,000  peopn , 
certainly  quite  sufficient  to  establish  a  colony,  would  require  far  less  skill  or 
enterprise,  than  that  which  raised  the  pyramids  of  either  Central  America  or 
Egypt. 

China  had  bronzes  in  perfection  during  her  very  earliest  ages,  and  may 
have  introduced  them  into  Western  Europe  and  Asia.  Among  the  most 
ancient  relics  found  in  Peru,  are  bronze  and  iron  implements.  Many  Peru- 
vian and  Central  American  antiquities  resemble,  not  modern  Chinese,  but 
their  most  ancient  writings  and  figures.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Cadmus' 
alphabet,  as  well  as  the  hieroglyphicH  of  Egypt,  may  have  been  suggested 
and  developed  from  the  ancient  American  hieroglyphics  now  coming  to  light, 
showing  such  similarity  and  apparent  connection,  and  which  many  scholars 
already  consider  as  the  early  models,  not  the  results,  o*  Egyptian  figures  and 
Chinese  ideographic  characters. 

The  Toltec  race  in  A*  lerica  had  a  god  with  one  arm — so  had  the  Egyptians. 
The  deified  Fo— whon  they  represent  with  two  small  horns,  similar  to  those 
associated  with  figurf.    of  Moses,  the  Hebrew  lawgiver — instructed  Chib-ca 

ut  the  cross  and  trigrama  used  on  their  inscriptions; 
lese  historians  ascribe  to  Fohi  many  new  things, 
>aint  identical  figures  of  trigrams,  hke  those  found 
itral  America.  With  time  and  perseverance,  it  may 
';  a  knowledge  of  hieroglyphics  came  from  Peru  or 
Central  America  to  Cnina — a  people  whose  growing  commercial  intercourse 
may  have  spread  their  knowledge  to  the  ancient  monarchies  of  Egypt. 

The  recital  of  facts  may  be  greatly  extended,  showing  a  wonderful  chain  of 
evidence,  which  it  is  hard  to  conceive  can  be  entirely  accidental  and  coinci- 
dental, unless  we  take  the  extremely  broad  and  apparently  untenablo 
ground,  boldly  asserting  that  primitive  humanity,  through  the  action  of 
common  laws  and  natural  forces,  wherever  placed,  evolves  like  forms,  customs 
and  necessary  results,  irrespective  of  variable  conditions  and  individual  fancy 
or  free  will.  Chinese  ideas  concerning  the  Tchin,  or  original  eight  persons 
of  a  supernatural  nature  who  escaped  from  the  sea,  point  to  an  origin  from 
beyond  seas,  or  to  an  early  piscatorial  age.  B.  C.  3,588,  Tai-ko-Fokee,  a  king 
of  China  from  abroad,  was  deified.     China  has  lier  ancient  pictorial  writings. 


Indians  in  Bogota  to  \ 
and  in  China,  the  C» 
among  others,  how  tc 
among  the  ruins  of  C 
yet  be  discovered   th 


,  and  readu 

have  been 
ciirpenters, 

cill  to  build 
amounts  of 
Noah's  urk 

day.  Ship- 
arl,  kuowu 

olute  iucep- 
a  race,  but 
maguificeiit 

Id  certain  I V 

any  exist  . 
eet  of  1, 

,000  peep  I, , 
less  skill  or 
America  or 

!s,  and  may 
g  the  moHt 
Many  Peru- 
!!hiuese,  but 
lat  Cadmus' 
u  suggested 
ling  to  light, 
liuy  scholars 
figures  and 

i  Egyptians, 
lilar  to  those 
ted  Chib-ca 
inscriptions; 
new  things, 
those  found 
ance,  it  may 
om  Peru  or 
intercourse 

gypt- 

rful  chain  of 
and  coiuci- 
'  untenablo 
e  action  of 
ms,  customs 
vidua!  fancy 
ight  persons 
origin  from 
okee,  a  king 
ial  writings. 


AjCADEMY    Off    S(MKNCES. 


28 


Fernando  Monti'sino,  a  Spanish  historian,  who  visited  Peru  and  publisltrd 
bis  work  from  IHOS  to  1547,  says  Peru  was  thickly  populattd,  and  hml  a  eata- 
logut*  of  101  monarchs,  with  notes  of  the  memorable  events  of  their  nign, 
extending  to  B.  ('.  2,ur)5. 

Hawks,  in  his  Peruvian  anticiuitios,  says  that  before  the  Spanish  concjuost, 
in  the  most  eminent  period  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Incas,  the  vast  finpiro  of 
Peru  contained  eleven  million  inhabitants,  which  rapidly  diminished,  until 
the  census  of  1580  shows  but  «,2M0,()0O,  and  now  the  valleys  of  the  Peruvian 
coast  contain  barely  a  fifth  of  what  they  contained  under  the  Incas.  The 
total  present  population  by  census  of  1875  amounts  to  only  '2,720,735  souls. 
A  light  native  is  still  called  a  t'h'mit-Cltold. 

The  feast  of  souls  practiced  in  Central  America  appears  to  have  been  derived 
from  the  same  source  as  that  of  the  i>-.cient  Egyptians.  The  Jesuits  of  the 
Propaganda  report  these  ceremonies  as  anciently  in  practice  in  China.  The 
ruins  of  ancient  temples  found  in  Central  America  resemble  in  form,  space, 
and  massive  walls,  icitfiont  muf,  the  most  ancient  temples  of  1-gypt,  and  many 
of  the  carvings  are  sin;     larly  alike. 

Traditionary  historic  s  among  the  difterent  groups  of  the  Polynesian  Islands 
indicate  that  the  Hawaiian  race  came  there  from  the  south.  The  Hawaiian 
Islands  are  nearly  in  the  direct  line  from  Peru  to  China. 

While  the  majority  of  Hawaiiaus  are  probably  descended  from  Malays, 
their  early  traditions  tell  us  of  the  landing  of  men  belonging  to  a  race  whiter 
than  their  own,  upon  the  southern  island  of  Hawaii,  many  centuries  ago, 
whom  they  were  at  first  inclined  to  consider  as  gods,  but  who  finally  settled 
among  them,  and  fiom  their  wisdom  were  elevated  to  high  positions.  These 
men  undoubtedly  came  from  Central  America  or  Peru,  and  may  have  been 
from  the  ancient  Peruvian  empire,  or  the  later  kingdom  of  the  Incas,  or  from 
that  early  civilization  whose  traces  yet  remain  in  Yucatan. 

It  has  been  sufficiently  demonstrated  that  even  frail  canoes  and  boatst 
either  by  accident  or  design,  have  performed  voyages  across  wide  oceans.  In 
19} 9,  Kotsebue  found  at  Radack  group  four  natives  of  the  Caroline  Islands, 
who  had  been  driven  eastward  in  p  canoe  1,500  miles.  In  1849  men  came 
from  Honolulu  to  San  Francisco,  2,300  miles,  in  whale  boats.  And  more 
recently  th?  boisterous  Atlantic  ocean  has  been  crossed  from  New  York  to 
Liverpool  by  a  solitary  man  in  a  dory. 

A  dozen  of  the  crew  of  the  clipper  ship  "Golden  Lujht,"  burned  in  the 
South  Pacific  about  1865,  just  west  of  Cape  Horn,  reached  Hawaii  in  eighty- 
one  days,  in  a  whale  boat  under  sail,  and  would  have  run  upon  the  reef  at 
Laopahoihoi,  but  for  natives  who  swam  off  to  rescue  these  exhausted  people, 
all  of  whom  survived. 

While  we  have  cited  facts  showing  it  reasonable  to  suppose  that  early  Peru- 
vians or  Central  Americans  may  have  come  to  China,  by  the  aid  of  continu- 
ous fair  winds,  it  is  no  less  necessary  to  show  the  almost  insurmountable  dif- 
ficulties which  exist  during  a  greater  part  of  the  year  to  impede  their  return 
by  sea.  To  beat  back  against  strong  trade-winds  and  the  long  regular  seas  of 
the  Pacific,  would  be  a  task  in  which  th'^y  would  surpass  our  beat  modern 
clippers,  which  now  can  only  make  the  voyage  by  running  far  north  and 
crossing  from  Japan  to  the  coast  of  California,  upon  the  arc  of  a  gi-eat  circle, 


24 


PROCEEDINGS   OF    THE   CALIFORNIA 


HI 


aucl  sailing  thence  southerly,  close  hauled  on  the  wind,  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Tahiti  in  the  South  Pacific,  which  must  then  bo  crossed  in  an  easterly  direc- 
tion, south  of  the  trade  winds,  which  in  turn  enable  them  to  make  no  'MUf< 
and  reach  the  coast  of  Peru.  Such  a  return  voyage  would  require  the  most 
skillful  knowledge  ot  winds,  coasts,  and  scientific  navigation,  such  as  we  have 
only  possessed  in  comparatively  recent  times,  and  would  also  require  exceed- 
ingly strong- and  weatherly  vessels.  There  seems,  therefore,  less  likelihood 
that  any  Chinese  ever  reached  Peru  in  pre-historic  times  by  such  a  route. 

Intercourse  appears  to  have  existed  more  recently,  but  how  far  it  was  recip- 
rocal remains  '■'^  be  seen.  If  it  was  commercial  it  was  more  likely  to  have 
been,  as  recipiocity  is  the  foundation  of  trade. 

In  our  search  for  objections  to  the  theory  we  are  exploring  we  however, 
find  other  possible  channels  of  return  communication.  During  the  south- 
west monsoon  a  fleet  of  junks  might  possibly  have  left  China  and  followed  the 
Kuro-Shiwo,  or  warm  stream  that  flows  along  the  coast  of  Japan,  with  sum- 
mer winds  across  to  the  northwestern  coast  of  America,  near  our  own  harbor, 
and  thence  gradually  have  worked  its  way  southward  to  Central  America, 
keeping  along  in  sight  of  the  coast  until  it  reached  the  calm  belt  around  Pan- 
ama. The  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  makes  this  fitatement:  "There  was 
a  constant  tradition  among  the  people  who  dwelt  on  the  Pacific  ocean,  that 
people  from  distant  nations  beyond  the  Pacific  formerly  came  to  trade  at  the 
ports  of  Coatulco  and  I'l'dndjui,  which  belonged  to  the  kingdour  of  Tehuanto- 
pec,  in  Central  America.  Baldwin  tells  us,  in  his  "Pre-historic  Times,"  that 
"  the  traditions  of  Peru  told  of  a  people  who  came  to  that  country  by  sea, 
and  landed  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  These  may  have  been  from  the  great  mari- 
time empire  of  the  Malays,  whose  dialects  have  permeated  almost  every  island 
in  the  Pacific  oceans.  Lang  says:  "  South  Sea  Islanders  exhibit  indubitable 
evidences  of  an  Asiatic  origin." 

The  continent  of  Asia  affords  more  facilities  for  reaching  Polynesia  than 
America,  although  stragglers  from  the  latter  have  doubtless  added  to  its  island 
races,  and  thus  created  a  mixture  of  customs  which,  to  some  extent,  may  in- 
dicate a  partial  derivation  from  both.  Probabilities  favor  Asia,  both  from 
certain  afifiuities  of  tongue,  striking  resemblance  i?'  manners,  idols,  and  phys- 
ical formation. 

Commercial  intercourse,  although  not  direct,  existed  and  was  maintained 
between  China  and  Egypt,  B.  C.  '2000.  Chinese  traditions  claim  for  their 
people  the  first  use  in  Asia^  of  ships  and  the  earliest  knowledge  of  navigation 
and  astronomy.  Their  people  first  acquired  the  mariner's  compass  and  be- 
lieved the  sacred  magnetic  influence  proceeded  from  Heaven,  which  they 
located  ir  the  South,  and  from  which  they  claimed  to  have  come.  To  this 
day  the  heads  of  Chinese  compasses  point  south. 

In  Peru,  the  oldest  civilization  was  the  most  advanced,  and  had  the  highest 
style  of  art  and  mechanical  skill.  "  Her  people  had  an  accurate  measure  of 
the  solar  year;  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  writing;  and  made  paper  of  hemp 
or  banana  leaves  B.  C.  1800."  The  aboriginal  Peruvians  have  had  their 
dark,  as  well  as  bright,  ages  in  history.  They  may  have  retrogi-aded  while 
their  possible  ofi'shoot,  the  Chinese,  progressed.  Young  colonies  often 
grow  and  prosper,  while  their  progenitors  reach  a  climax  and  die  out.      Dis- 


ACADEMY   OF    SCIENCES, 


25 


[bborhood 
irly  diree- 
no  "'iiif^ 
the  most 
18  we  liavii 
re  exceed- 
likelihood 
mute, 
was  recip- 
y  to  have 

however, 
the  south- 
llowed  the 
with  Biiiii- 
vn  harbor, 

America, 
oiind  Pan- 
There  was 
)ceau,  that 
ade  at  the 
Tehuantc- 
mes,"  that 
ry  by  sen, 
jreat  mari- 
?ery  ishiud 
udubitable 

uosia  than 
0  its  ishiud 

t,  may  iu- 
both  from 

aud  phys- 

uftintaiued 
for  their 
navigation 
18  aud  hv- 
k-hich  tliuy 
To  this 

the  highest 
measure  of 
r  of  htnip 
had  their 
ided  while 
nies  often 
out.      Dis- 


solution is  the  countercharge,  which  every  material  aggregate  evolved,  sooner 
or  later  undergoes.  Evolution  aud  dissolution  bring  to  us  ever  changing,  but 
eternally  advancing  forms,  in  their  cycles  of  transformation. 

The  establishment  of  a  race  may  be  possible  from  a  single  pair,  of  strongly 
marked  distinctive  characteristics,  whose  descendants  have  continually  inter- 
married. Hebrew  patriarchs  founded  nations,  aud  nations  thus  springing 
from  a  single  man  of  pronounced  character,  whose  descendants  remained 
united  and  isolated,  have  often  developed  strong  and  peculiar  personal  char- 
acteristics, which  have  pervaded  and  stamped  themselves  upon  the  race  thus 
descended.  Mixed  or  cosmopolitan  races,  never  possess  uniform  charajisris- 
tics  as  clearly  defined. 

It  seems  more  reasonable  to  infer,  that  a  fleet  from  the  neighborhood  of 
Peru  may  have  reached  China  with  the  first  emigration,  jDcrhaps  bearing  a 
hero-sovereign  and  an  invading  army,  which,  once  landed,  found  China 
agreeable,  and,  being  unable  to  return  against  those  perpetual  winds  which 
brought  them  so  swiftly,  were  compelled  to  establish  themselves  in  new  ter- 
ritory. 

Writers  on  Central  America  have  expressed  a  decided  opinion,  that  the 
peculiar  character  of  its  ancient  civilization,  manners,  customs,  and  general 
structure  of  the  ancient  language,  point  very  strongly  to  a  common  origin 
between  the  Indo-Chinese  nations  of  Eastern  Asia  and  the  ancient  civilization 
of  America,  which  appears,  in  some  remarkable  particulars,  to  have  been  of 
an  Egyptian  cast.  The  Coptic  or  ancient  Egyptian  language,  however, 
seems  to  have  been  ii.onosyilabic.  Hieroglyphic  writing  is  of  thi-ee  kinds: 
figurative,  symbolical  and  phonetic.  Hubert  H.  Bancroft,  in  his  Native  liaces 
of  the  Pacific  States,  Vol.  V,  f.  39,  says:  "Analogies  have  been  or  thought 
to  exist  between  the  languages  of  several  of  the  American  tribes  and  that  of 
the  Chinese.  But  it  is  to  Mexico,  Central  America,  and,  as  we  shall  hereafter 
see,  to  Peru,  that  wo  must  look  for  these  linguistic  atiinities,  aud  not  to  the 
northwestern  coasts  [of  America],  where  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find 
them  most  evident."  Count  Htolbtirg,  quoted  by  Humboldt,  is  of  the  opinion 
that  the  Peruvian  cult  is  that  of  Vishnu — one  of  the  Brahmin  trinity — when 
he  appears  in  the  form  ol  Krishna,  or  the  Sun. 

Mexican  kings,  who  reigned  previous  to  the  Spanish  conquest,  all  added 
TziN  to  their  names  as  a  reverential  affix.  It  resembles  in  sound  a  dynasty 
of  China— the  Tsin  dynasty— which  reigned  from  B.  C.  249  to  B.  C.  205. 
Tai  Ko  Foki,  the  Great  Stranger  King  of  China  B.  C.  3588,  or  later  Hoang 
Tai,  may  have  landed  from  such  a  fleet,  and  been  called  by  conquest,  or 
through  the  reverence  of  superior  knowledge,  to  reign  over  them.  The 
descendants  of  these  early  settlers  may  have  remained  clannish,  keeping 
apart,  as  an  entirely  distinctive  race,  from  the  Miauts  or  original  aborigines, 
naturally  following  the  customs  of  their  forefathers,  and  thus  have  increased 
and  grown  into  a  mighty  nation,  unlike  all  people  around  them. 

During  many  centuries  of  growth,  China,  like  Japan  mid  Corea,  became 
a  sealed  empire,  when  no  possible  admixture  of  foreign  bT  jod  could  occur. 
It  seems  to  have  become  an  established  habit  with  these  nations  to  periodi- 
cally close  their  ports  to  foreign  intercourse.  Some  similarities  of  race  exist 
between  some  types  of  the  Coreans  aud  Japanese,  while  the  Chinese  are 


IwlJ^^Ji^ 


n 


26 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE   CALIFORNIA 


quite  singular  and  unlike.  Their  oriental  peculiarities,  which  strike  the 
casual  observer,  are  their  dress,  shaved  heads  and  queues,  habits,  odor,  and 
guttural  language.  Chinese  are  the  only  nation  on  the  continent  of  Asia 
that  use  chairs  and  tables.  Isolated  nalions,  like  hermits,  cannot  escape 
being  distinguished  by  eccentric  habits.  Now,  if  the  high  civilization  of 
Peru,  which  was  in  full  tide  B.  C.  1800,  and  probably  many  centuries  before, 
crossed  to  China  in  very  early  days,  bringing  its  accurate  measure  of  the 
solar  year,  and  the  arts  of  making  paper  and  writing,  all  the  necessary  mate- 
rial was  furnished  China  for  the  production  of  correct  and  reliable  historic 
records.  In  reviewing  Chinese  early  history,  we  have  found  that,  B.  C, 
Tai  Ko  Foki,  their  Great  Stranger  King,  introduced  a  knowledge  of  these 
things,  with  hieroglyphic  characters,  and  first  divided  time  for  them  into 
lunar  months  and  solar  years.  And  we  have  shown  that  the  authentic  com- 
prehensible history  of  China  begins  with  his  reign. 

Now  we  inquire,  did  Foki,  with  all  this  valuable  knowledge,  come  from 
Peru  B.  C.  3588,  and  settle  among  a  pre-existing  people,  perhaps  similar  to, 
if  not  the  aboriginal  Miautz,  long  since  driven  from  the  plains  of  China  into 
the  almost  inaccessible  fastnesses  of  its  mountain  barriers? 

A  knowledge  of  days  already  existed  among  the  sun-worshipers  of  Asia, 
who  doubtless  kept  their  records  in  days;  but  the  introduction  of  a  scale 
measuring  by  months  and  years  placed  their  history  on  a  looting  we  can 
comprehend;  and  the  introduction  of  the  art  of  writing  enabled  them  to 
perpetuate  it  by  enduring  records.  When  we  discover  the  measures  of  time, 
used  to  gauge  ancient  histories  before  these  improvements  were  introduced, 
we  shall  doubtless  find  their  records  reasonably  authentic.  We  have  as  little 
understood  their  stupendous  figures  as  strangers  conceive  the  value  of  a 
Brazilian  rea,  some  1000  of  which,  make  a  sum  equal  to  the  United  States 
dollar;  and  accounts  involving  such  currency  bear  the  formidable  aspect  of 
immense  sums,  to  the  uninformed.  With  advancing  centuries,  the  measure 
of  time  doubtless  lengthens. 

After  the  children  of  Israel  left  Egypt,  where  the  solar  year  was  known, 
records  of  extreme  longevity  disappear,  and  ordinary  terms  of  life  are  ad- 
hered to.  We  should  judge  euutiously,  and  refrain  from  any  interpretation 
at  variance  ^\•ith  human  reason  and  common  sense.  The  lunar  changes, 
without  doubt,  were  employed  in  the  measurement  of  time  in  all  warm  cli- 
mates before  the  introduction  of  the  solar  year.  The  colder  the  winter,  the 
more  marked  the  year  became  as  a  measure  of  time.  Day  and  night  would 
naturally  suggest  themselves  as  the  first  measure.  Peruvians,  Chinese,  Egyp- 
tians, Hebrews,  Japanese,  Polynesians,  and  others,  all  attribute  great  long- 
evity to  their  earliest  ancestry,  until  the  introduction  of  higher  mathematics 
and  the  solar  year. 

The  oldest  histories  preserved  to  us  become  what  in  our  day  we  call  au- 
thentic, when  their  nations  acquired, the  art  of  writing,  and  divided  time  in  n 
regular  and  uniform  manner,  by  the  solar  year. 

The  first  and  fabulous  epochs  of  most  histories  begin  vith  dynasties  of  deified 
warriors.  The  tendency  to  deification  exists  among  ail  early  nations,  and  we 
need  not  go  out  of  our  own  history  to  prove  it.  Edmond  the  Confessor,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,   who  died  as  late  as  1242,  was   canonized  as  a 


ACADEMY    OF    SCIENCES. 


27 


strike  the 
odor,  iiud 
it  of  Asiii 
lot  escape 
ization  of 
es  before, 
ire  of  the 
sary  mate- 
le  historic 
lat,  B.  C, 
0  of  these 
them  iuto 
entic  com- 

3ome  from 
simihir  to, 
China  into 

irs  of  Asia, 
of  a  scalu 
ng  we  can 
id  them  to 
es  of  time, 
ntroduced, 
ive  as  little 
value  of  a 
ited  States 
e  aspect  of 
le  measure 

as  known, 
ife  are  ad- 
erpretatiou 
changes, 
warm  cli- 
winter,  the 
ight  would 
lese,  Egyp- 
^reat  long- 
athematicB 

ve  call  au- 
I  time  in  a 

s  of  deifiod 
ns,  and  we 
ifessor,  the 
mi  zed  as  a 


saint,  only  a  differentiated  form  of  the  same  tendency.  The  gods  of  antiquity 
were  partly  impersonifications  of  natural  forces,  and  partly  deified  men. 
They  often  bear  the  same  relation  to  facts  that  shadows  do  to  forms,  being 
at  worst  but  simple  distortions  of  the  truth.  Few  nations  can  examine  ini- 
partially  the  substratum  of  their  ancestral  religious  creeds.  How  often  do 
we  find  in  dogmatic  theology  the  imprint  of  early  paganism?  The  Hawaiian 
nation  is  supposed  to  have  a  considerable  antiquity.  From  time  immemorial 
there  have  been  persons  appointed  by  the  government  to  preserve,  unim- 
paired, the  geneology  of  their  kings,  which  in  1863  embraced  the  names  of 
more  than  seventy.  Allow  an  average  reign  of  twenty-five  years,  this  would 
throw  their  history  back  1,750  years,  to  A.  D.  117  or  earlier,  say  to  about  the 
Christian  era. 

It  was  a  custom  throughout  the  islands  of  the  Pacific  to  extermiaate  their 
enemies,  either  by  killing  or  setting  them  adrift  in  canoes.  The  latter  prac- 
tice not  only  led  to  the  peopling  of  the  various  Polynesian  islands,  but  was 
also  a  cause  which  led  to  cannibalism,  for  want  compelled  the  exiles  to  sub- 
sist on  each  other,  and  a  taste  once  indulged  in,  was  continued  by  survivors 
who  succeedeed  in  reaching  some  island,  and  thus  cannibalism  became  estab- 
lished.    North  American  Indians  have  never  been  cannibals. 

When  Spaniards  first  visited  America,  the  western  equatorial  regions  of 
the  continent  were  the  seats  of  extensive,  flourishint,'  and  powerful  empires, 
whose  inhabitants  were  well  acquainted  with  the  science  of  government,  and 
had  evinced  considerable  progress  in  art.  Roads  fifteen  hundred  miles  long, 
remain  in  Peru,  relics  of  the  past,  as  ancient  as  the  Appian  way.  In  very 
remote  times  social  etiquette  was  observed  and  universally  respected.  The 
early  Peruvians  constructed  suspension  bridges  across  frightful  ravines,  and 
moved  blocks  of  stone  as  huge  as  the  Sphinxes  and  Memnons  of  Egypt. 
They  built  aqueducts  of  baked  clay  and  coustructed  dykes  and  causeways, 
and  preserved  a  memory  of  past  events  by  picture  writing.  They  had  a  lan- 
guage of  ceremony  or  deference,  with  reverential  nouns  and  verbs,  with  which 
inferiors  addressed  superiors,  a  feature  of  resemblance  to  the  Chinese  in 
Eastern  Asia. 

Euius  of  extensive  cities  and  fortifications  are  now  found  in  Yucatan  and 
regions  of  Central  America;  the  elevated  plains  of  Bogota  and  Vundinamarcn; 
the  open  valleys  of  Peru;  and  the  lofty,  secluded  and  highly  fertile  tracts  of 
Chili.  These  colossal  remains  of  ancient  primitive  civilizations  are  passing 
from  the  memory  of  a  degenerate  offspring,  who  now  behold  with  indo- 
lent amazement  these  interesting  relics  of  their  illustrious  predecessors.  The 
origin,  history  and  fate  of  these  powerful  nations  of  America,  who  have  left 
behind  them  such  colossal  memorials  of  an  ancient  civilization,  is  a  study 
of  profound  interest.  Stones,  thirty  by  eighteen  by  six  feet,  are  squared 
and  hewn  and  reared  with  utmost  exactness.  Their  style  of  arch  is  peculiar. 
Temples,  pyramids,  tumuli,  and  fortifications,  with  remains  of  buildings  of 
singularly  massive  architecture,  often  exquisitely  carved,  betokens  a  civilized 
anticjuity. 

It  seems  impossible  that  these  people  should  have  passed  from  the  conti- 
nent of  Asia  by  Behring's  Straits,  for  no  traces  of  any  such  people  remain 
anywhere  along  that  route. 


28 


PROCEEDINGS   OF   THE    CALIFORNIA 


[ 


Pyramids  of  remote  antiquity  are  found  in  India,  Chini\  and  Tahiti,  as  well 
as  in  Egypt  and  South  America.  Those  of  Egypt  are  in  the  best  state  of 
preservation  and  perhaps  therefore  the  most  recent. 

The  learned  Bavarian,  Dr.  Von  Martins,  regards  the  evidence  incontroverti- 
ble "of  the  existence  of  the  nborhjines  of  Atnerica  long  anterior  to  the  period 
assigned  in  Hebrew  chronology  for  the  creation  of  the  world;"  a  race  whoso 
utter  dissolution  manifests  that  it  either  bore  within  itself  the  germ  of  ex- 
tinction or  attempted  an  existence  under  most  fatally  unfavorable  conditions. 

Dr.  Clarke  says:  "No  race  of  human  kind  has  yet  obtained  a  permanent 
foothold  upon  the  American  continent.  The  Asiatics  trace  back  their  life  in 
Asia  so  far,  that  the  distance  between  to-day  and  their  recorded  starting-point 
seems  like  a  geologic  epoch.  The  descendants  of  the  Ptolemies  still  cultivate 
the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  race  that  peopled  Northern  Europe  when  Greece 
and  Ilom4  were  young,  not  only  retaiu.s  its  ancient  place  and  power,  but 
makes  itself  felt  and  heard  throughout  the  world.  On  the  American  conti- 
nent, races  have  been  born,  developed,  and  disappeared.  The  causes  of  their 
disappearance  are  undiscovered.  We  only  know  that  they  are  gone."  It  re- 
mains to  be  seen  if  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  which  has  ventured  upon  a  conti- 
nent which  has  proved  the  tomb  of  antecedent  races,  can  produce  a  physique 
capable  of  meeting  successfully,  and  advancing  under,  the  demands  that  our 
climate  and  type  of  civilization  make  upon  it.     This  is  an  interesting  query. 

If  Wj  have  been  utterly  confounded  in  contemplating  the  stupendous  monu- 
ments of  Egyptian  magnificence,  which  continue  to  defy  the  ravages  of  time, 
what  shall  be  said  of  remains  of  more  ancient  pyramids  and  colossal  figures 
in  America,  of  a  style  and  character  analogous  to  those  of  ancient  Egypt, 
whose  very  stones  are  crumbling  to  decay,  and  on  whose  flinty  sides  verdure 
has  crept  over  the  dust  of  ages,  until  ancient  and  gigantic  forests  have  ac- 
quired root-hold,  and  grown  over  their  very  summits?  Many  an  Alexander 
and  Napoleon  of  pre-historic  times  has  gone  to  his  rest,  and  left  no  record, 
capable  of  enduring  to  the  age  we  live  in,  to  mark  the  glory  of  his  empire. 
Many  mummies  are  found  in  Peru,  enveloped  in  bandages  of  fine  clutb, 
while  the  bodies  of  kings  are  admirably  preserved  by  means  of  a  secret  known 
only  to  the  royal  family. 

In  the  far  distance  of  remote  antiquity,  successive  peoples  have  risen  to 
importance  and  passed  away,  long  ages  before  the  birth  of  those  from  whom 
the  faintest  ray  of  civilization  has  remained  to  cast  even  a  feeble  reflection  of 
its  pale  light  upon  the  fading  pages  of  our  most  ancient  historic  records. 

A  period  has  undoubtedly  existed,  in  the  primitive  history  of  our  earth, 
when  the  necessary  equilibrium  between  its  external  and  internal  forces  has 
been  lost.  When  the  external  pressure  on  the  crust  became  diminished  by 
the  sublimation  and  recomposition  of  external  elements,  which,  when  refined 
and  advanced,  were  unequal  iu  density  to  the  expansive  force  of  igneous  ma- 
terials confined  in  the  interior  mass.  The  solid  enveloping  crust  of  our 
sphere  is  the  medium  constantly  acted  upon,  by  these  contending  forces,  iu 
seeking  a  state  of  equilibrium.  Geologists  direct  us  to  many  prominences 
in  which  the  upheaved  strata,  on  one  side,  is  abruptly  broken,  and  on  the 
other,  gently  inclined.  Such  ruptures  could  not  have  been  gradual,  for  in 
places  the  whole  combined  strata  is  fractured,  depressing  portions,  and  rais- 


ACADEMY     OF   SCIENCES. 


29 


ing  others  to  iiiiineuse  heigtts.  Earth's  surface,  to-day,  bears  unmihtakable 
evidence,  to  every  thoughtful  student,  that  eruptive  catastrophes  have  mate- 
rially changed  its  geological  features — especii.lly  the  levels.  Many  areas, 
formerly  submerged,  are  now  dry,  and  known  as  alluvial  formations.  Heaa 
have  changed  pcsition,  and  rivers  acquired  new  coxarses.  New  land  has  been 
formed,  and  mountain  ranges  reared  by  upheaval.  Recent  deep-sea  sound- 
ings of  the  U.  S.  steamer  7'i(s(Y(/vi/y<— commander,  Belknap— clearly  illustrate 
how  largely  the  bed  of  the  Pacific  Ocean — once  but  an  extended  valley,  4-un- 
ning,  i^erhaps,  from  the  Arctic  to  the  C.iribbean  Sea — may  have  augmented  its 
area  by  a  comparatively  moderate  depression.  During  the  glacial  period,  im- 
mense icebergs  were  produced  at  the  poles,  and  as  they  increased  in  bulk, 
during  a  succession  of  cold  winters,  they  accumulated  an  enormous  volume  of 
water — human  life  is  considered  to  have  been  extant  at  this  period — and  when 
a  succession  of  warm  summers,  produced  by  the  perpendicularity  of  the 
earth's  axis  to  the  plane  of  the  ecliptic,  succeeded  in  reducing  these  huge  accu. 
mulations  of  polar  ice,  its  volume  retired,  covering  many  valleys  not  previously 
submerged.  This  conld  have  given  rise  to  the  legend  of  a  Flood,  which  may 
have  occurred,  but  could  not  have  been  universal,  for  a  sufKcient  amount  of 
water  docs  not  exist  to  cover  the  highest  mountains,  and  submerge  the  entire 
earth. 

A  sudden  and  eruptive  convulsion  of  earth's  crust  during  the  tertiaiy,  near 
th(>  close  of  the  cretaceous  period,  whether  separate  or  conjointly  with  a  flood, 
must  necessarily  have  destroyed  a  large  majority  of  paitinlly  developed  men, 
struggling  to  evolve  the  higher  human  types.  Tortions  of  Asia,  Africa,  and 
Australia  are  supposed  to  have  been  elevated;  while  Europe,  the  extreme  north- 
ern portions  of  America,  the  Caribbean  Sea,  and  the  beds  of  certain  oceans  were 
depressed.  The  etlects  must  have  been  most  forcible  around  the  poles  and 
south  of  the  equator.  Dead  river  beds  which  cross  the  highest  mountiiiu 
ranges  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  yield  so  largely  of  gold  to  hydraulic  washing, 
clearly  confirm  radical  changes  in  the  physical  conditions  and  levels  of  this 
coast. 

The  surviving  remnants  of  these  catastrophes,  in  Asia,  Africa,  Yucatan, 
and  a  few  scattering  tribes  of  North  America,  thenceforth  appear  as  the  pro- 
genitors of  all  living  nations.  It  is  only  from  this  period, that  we  can  hope 
to  trace  the  early  history  of  humanity.  Previous  beings,  if  in  harniony  with 
physical  conditions,  must  have  been  generally  in  the  incipient  stages  of  hu- 
man evolution.  In  Central  America  alone,  we  find  ruins,  whos»;  hoary  an- 
tiquity seem  to  claim  for  its  inhabitants  the  earliest  civilization  of  which  any 
traces  remain.  It  is  fair  to  infer  that  the  pyramids  of  Yucatan  were  antedi- 
luvian and  escaped  inundation,  as  did  the  cities  of  Palenque  and  Copan. 
These  elaborately  constructed  cities  of  Central  .America  exhibit  conceptions 
of  beauty  which,  as  early  specimens  of  a  gradually  unfolding  art,  appear  to 
antedate  all  similar  structures  extant. 

Plausible  groundfi  of  inference  exist,  that  the  earliest  manifestations  of  cul- 
ture known  to  us,  was  among  the  primitive  settlers  of  Central  America,  who, 
having  acquired  mechanical  invention,  art,  and  the  rudiments  of  science. 


Pnoc.  Cal.  Acad.  Sci.,  Vol.  VI.— 9. 


/ 


30 


CALIFORNIA  ACADEMY  OF    SCIENCES. 


\ 


built  dwoUingH  nnd  temples,  which  yet  eudure  «8  testimony  of  their  progreHs, 
Although  their  minds  were  doubtless  umniltivated  in  those  higher  branchtw 
of  knowledge  and  refinement  which  ensures  perpetuity  to  uiitiomil  life,  they 
seem  to  have  led  the  world  in  the  early  use  of  langnag(i,  and  the  adoption  of 
picture-writing  to  record  and  communicate  ideas. 

The  sun,  which  was  long  the  national  emblem  of  Central  American  nations, 
is  the  absolute  basis  of  mythology.  It  seems  probable  that  Yucatan  once  ex- 
tended over  the  present  bed  of  tlie  Gulf  of  Mexico,  including  the  West  Indiim 
Islands.  The  Caribs  may  be  a  degenerate  remnant  of  some  aboriginal  race. 
The  ancestors  of  our  North  American  Indians  were  very  uncultivated  in  their 
physical,  nnaital  and  social  condition. 

Long  before  Egypt,  the  progenitor  of  Greece  and  Europe,  was  settled,  the 
inhabitants  of  Yucatan  appear  bj'  their  monuments  to  have  been  well  ad- 
vanced in  general  intellectual  attainments,  and  to  have  led  all  knowv  '^ations 
in  art  and  science.  Why  may  not  a  branch  of  this  people  have  emigrated 
to  China  ai  i  Egypt,  and  there  have  become  a  large  and  advanced  nation  V 

Many  things  unite  to  prove  that  China,  at  the  opening  of  her  treaty  i)orts 
to  European  trade,  was  unmistakably  retrograding  in  (he  physical  as  well  as 
social  organization  of  her  people.  Her  highest  prosperity  is  thought  to  have 
been  reached  about  the  reign  of  Genghis  khan. 

Agassiz  tells  us  that,  geologically  considered,  America  is  the  oldest  con- 
tinent. If  80,  why  should  we  not  look  to  it,  as  the  spot  where  the  human 
race  first  gained  ascendancy,  and  acquired  its  primeval  home?  If  its  primi- 
tive races  have  died  out,  and  stone  ])yramids  crumbled  beneath  the  dust,  is  it 
not  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of  her  antiquity  V  In  Asia,  traces  yet  remain 
of  original  races,  whose  earlier  civilization  in  America,  under  different  physi- 
cal conditions,  /k/.s  hud  time  to  culminate,  dissolve,  and  -/ddc  from  sight. 
When,  in  the  early  development  of  America,  progress  was  sufficient  to  facili- 
tate emigration,  why  may  she  not  have  furni.shed  population  to  At^ia?  In 
submitting  this  (juestion,  with  evidence  calculated  to  warrant  further  study, 
and  outlining  various  channels  for  investigation,  W(-  aim  to  attract  for  it  that 
scientific  attention  which,  as  an  ethnological  problem,  it  fairly  deserves,  hop- 
ing some  satisfactory  answer  may  be  attempted,  before  facilities  for  interroga- 
tion yet  available  among  American  aborigines,  shall  have  passed  away  forever. 
This  imi)erfect  collection  of  facts  is  laid  before  the  Academy  in  its  present 
condition,  not  in  any  way  to  ask  for  present  endorsement,  but  to  awaken 
new  sources  of  inquiry  among  thoughtful  ethnologists,  which  may  ultimately 
lead  to  a  discovery  of  the  truth.  A  large  mass  of  additional  facts  bearing 
upon  this  subject  require  more  labor  than  I  have  yet  found  time  to  bestow, 
and  would  also  unreasonably  swell  this  already  lengthy  i^aper,  which  is 
offered  as  a  simple  inquiry,  suggested  to  careful  and  technical  scientists, 
who,  by  comparing  physical,  embryological,  and  linguistic  characteristics, 
pertinent  histories,  and  traditions,  may  in  future  establish  or  disprove  the 
possibilities  here  shadowed  forth. 


.n  iiatious, 
u  ouce  ex- 
est  Indinu 
2;inal  race, 
ed  in  their 


Si(u  Franrisr.fi, 

Californio. 

ai  ^ 

f»'j              till 

sUiiu                      kin 

Hiidrojiolis                Kioiit 

iiiuuntuiiiK                 <;ol(i 

